Mackey ER, et al. – The reason for this examination was to investigate the role of adolescent–reported pre–operative social support around exercise, binge eating, and exercise to predict excess body mass index (EBMI) loss from 3 to 12 months post–surgery. The study findings suggested that pre–operative binge eating should be a target for identification and treatment prior to sleeve gastrectomy in adolescents. Although not directly or indirectly related to EBMI loss, perceived social support around exercise was correlated with increased exercise, which could make it a consideration for a target for intervention as well.

Methods

• This study was conducted on one hundred one adolescents ages 12–21 (M age = 16.6, SD = 1.8).
• Pre-operative body mass index (BMI) ranged from 35 to 87 (M = 50.3, SD = 8.6).
• Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to assess a model of the association of adolescent report of perceived social support for exercise with less binge eating (items from the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale) and more self-reported exercise (items from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System).
• The model was utilized to anticipate EBMI loss at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-surgery.

Results

• According to the findings obtained, social support significantly predicted exercise and showed a trend for predicting binge eating, such that more social support was related to more exercise and a trend for less binge eating.
• Findings revealed that binge eating was related to less EBMI loss.
• The outcomes did not find association of exercise with EBMI loss.