No long-term cost savings with weight loss surgery

Weight loss surgery does not lower health costs over the long run for people who are obese, according to a new study.

Some researchers had suggested that the initial costs of surgery may pay off down the road, when people who've dropped the extra weight need fewer medications and less care in general.

The new report joins other recent studies challenging that theory.

"No way does this study say you shouldn't do bariatric surgery," said Jonathan Weiner from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, who led the new research.

But, he added, "We need to view this as the serious, expensive surgery that it is, that for some people can almost save their lives, but for others is a more complex decision."

According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, about 200,000 people have weight loss surgery every year.

Surgery is typically recommended for people with a body mass index (BMI) - a measure of weight in relation to height - of at least 40, or at least 35 if they also have co-occurring health problems such as diabetes or severe sleep apnea.

A five-foot, eight-inch person weighing 263 pounds has a BMI of 40, for example.

For their study, Weiner and his colleagues tracked health insurance claims for almost 30,000 people who underwent weight loss surgery between 2002 and 2008. They compared those with claims from an equal number of obese people who had a similar set of health problems but didn't get surgery.

As expected, the surgery group had a higher up-front cost of care, with the average procedure running about $29,500.

Weight loss surgery, also called bariatric surgery, is used as a last resort to treat people who are dangerously obese (carrying an abnormally excessive amount of body fat).

This type of surgery is only available on the NHS to treat people with potentially life-threatening obesity when other treatments, such as lifestyle changes, haven't worked.

Potentially life-threatening obesity is defined as:

having a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or above
having a BMI of 35 or above and having another serious health condition that could be improved if you lose weight, such as type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure

For people who meet the above criteria, weight loss surgery has proved to be effective in significantly and quickly reducing excess body fat.

However, it is always recommended that you try to lose weight through a healthy, calorie-controlled diet and increased exercise before you consider weight loss surgery, as surgery carries a risk of complications and requires a significant change in lifestyle afterwards.