Perceived Barriers, Enablers, Beliefs and Level of Physical Activity and Awareness regarding Role of Physiotherapy in Patients posted for Bariatric Surgery: A Questionnaire Based Study

Background: Obesity is of huge concern worldwide. Bariatric surgery is effective in managing morbid obesity and its associated complications. Physiotherapy plays a crucial role in the pre-operative as well as postoperative phases of bariatric surgery. Lack of physical activity in patients who are obese, patients who are posted for bariatric surgery and those who have undergone bariatric surgery can be accounted to a lot of factors. Identifying their perceived level of physical activity along with the facilitators, barriers and beliefs will help in addressing these issues and thereby increasing adherence to physical activity.Objective: To evaluateperceived level, along with barriers, enablers and beliefs of physical activity in patients posted for bariatric surgery. We also evaluated their awareness about the role of physiotherapy in pre and post-operative phases of bariatric surgery.Method:A questionnaire was designed to gain an insight aboutfactors contributing as barriers and enablers, under the domains of physical, psychological, interpersonal and environmental. It also included perceived level and the existing level of physical activity in the study participants.Questions were also designed to understand their awareness about the role of physiotherapy in the pre and post bariatric surgery phase. It was administered to patients posted for bariatric surgery on an interview basis. Sample size was calculated to be 96. The data was then analysed and represented as descriptive statistics.Results: All study participants failed to meet the recommended level of physical activity. The predominant barriers perceived by the study participants belonged to physical, psychological and interpersonal domains; whereas environmental barriers were found to be of least significance. 72.92% of the study participants lacked the knowledge about the role of physiotherapy in the pre-operative phase of bariatric surgery.Conclusions:Interpersonal, physical and psychological being the predominant barriers faced by the study participants highlight the scope of physiotherapeutic intervention. Also these factors can be modified at an individual level, thereby improving the adherence. There is lack of awareness about the role of physiotherapy in the pre-operative phase of bariatric surgery. Thus there is need to increase awareness about the role of physiotherapy in managing obesity and related complications in pre and post-op phases of bariatric surgery.