AB052. SOH22ABS040. Massive weight loss body contouring: online resources fail to meet patient needs
General Session I

AB052. SOH22ABS040. Massive weight loss body contouring: online resources fail to meet patient needs

Sinéad McKenna1, Ellen Geary1, Helen Heneghan2, Roisin Dolan1, Tom O’Reilly1

1Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; 2Department of Bariatric Surgery, St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

Background: As a result of the drive to tackle the obesity pandemic, significant investment in Bariatric services has created a wave for body contouring procedures. This type of reconstructive surgery is a core element of the massive weight loss multi-disciplinary management. Since this group are enthusiastic users of online platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter), the aim of this study is to assess the quality and readability of online information relating to post-Bariatric body contouring surgery, available to prospective patients.

Methods: The first 200 search results under “plastic surgery after Bariatric surgery” were classified and analyzed using medically approved qualibility and readability scoring systems. We recorded the address of each website into a database and organised each website into 5 categories; academic, clinic-based, health portal, physician and unspecified. The JAMA Benchmark scoring system and DISCERN score were used to evaluate the quality of the websites. The readability of the website was determined by the Flesch-Kincaid grade and the Coleman-Liau Score. The exclusion criteria included websites containing ≤1 sentences, inaccessible websites, websites not in English, websites ≥15 years old and duplicate websites.

Results: There were 166 websites eligible for inclusion. The JAMA benchmark and DISCERN scores were calculated for all websites. The average JAMA benchmark was 2 and the average DISCERN was 28.3. The median JAMA score was 2.0 (range, 0–4), and the median DISCERN was 23 (range, 16–70). The classification distribution of websites was as follows; 130 clinic-based, 14 academics, 10 health portal, 3 physicians and 9 unspecified. The average Flesch-Kincaid Readability scores and Coleman-Liau Index scores for all websites were 53.3 and 14 respectively. There was a median Flesch-Kincaid score of 52.4 (leaving certificate/university grade level), and a median Coleman-Liau score of 14.4 (university grade level).

Conclusions: Whilst a wide range of information is available to patients on this topic, it appears to be of low qualibility and a high readability level for the average Irish reader. We have developed an online information resource that is pitched accurately for prospective body contouring patients.

Keywords: Body contouring; weight loss; plastic surgery; bariatric surgery; obesity

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

doi: 10.21037/map-22-ab052
Cite this abstract as: McKenna S, Geary E, Heneghan H, Dolan R, O’Reilly T. AB052. SOH22ABS040. Massive weight loss body contouring: online resources fail to meet patient needs. Mesentery Peritoneum 2022;6:AB052.

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