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Clinical Nutrition

Vitamin concentrations 5 years after gastric bypass

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 69, pages 1249–1255 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Few studies have investigated the effects of bariatric surgery on vitamin status in the long term. We examined changes in vitamin status up to 5 years after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery.

Subjects/Methods:

Using a retrospectively maintained database of patients undergoing weight loss surgery, we identified all patients operated with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass at our tertiary care hospital during July 2004–May 2008. Data on vitamin concentrations and patient-reported intake of dietary supplements were collected up to July 2012. Linear mixed models were used to estimate changes in vitamin concentrations during follow-up, adjusting for age and sex. All patients were recommended daily oral multivitamin, calcium/vitamin D and iron supplements and 3-monthly intramuscular B-12 after surgery.

Results:

Out of the 443 patients operated with gastric bypass, we included 441 (99.5%) patients with one or more measurements of vitamin concentrations (75.1% women; mean age 41.5 years, mean body mass index 46.1 kg/m2 at baseline). At 5 years after surgery, the patients' estimated mean vitamin concentrations were either significantly higher (vitamin B-6, folic acid, vitamin B-12, vitamin C and vitamin A) or not significantly different (thiamine, 25-hydroxyvitamin D and lipid-adjusted vitamin E) compared with before surgery. Use of multivitamin, calcium/vitamin D and vitamin B-12 supplements was reported by 1–9% of patients before surgery, 79–84% of patients at 1 year and 52–83% of patients 5 years after surgery.

Conclusions:

In patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery, estimated vitamin concentrations were either significantly increased or unchanged up to 5 years after surgery.

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Acknowledgements

EA (guarantor) and ETA collected the data; EA, A-MA, TM and ETA contributed to the study design and planned the study; EA cross-checked the data; EA and MWF carried out the statistical analysis; EA and ETA wrote the manuscript; TM, A-MA and ETA supervised the study. All authors contributed to the interpretation of results, critically revised the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Morbid Obesity and Bariatric Surgery, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

    E Aaseth, S Hewitt, H Risstad, J Kristinsson, T Mala & E T Aasheim

  2. Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Research Support Services, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

    M W Fagerland

  3. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

    A-M Aas

  4. Department of Endocrinology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

    T Bøhmer

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  1. E Aaseth
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Correspondence to E Aaseth.

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Aaseth, E., Fagerland, M., Aas, AM. et al. Vitamin concentrations 5 years after gastric bypass. Eur J Clin Nutr 69, 1249–1255 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.82

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