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Attachment anxiety predicts poor adherence to dietary recommendations: an indirect effect on weight change 1 year after gastric bypass surgery
Weight loss following gastric bypass surgery is contingent upon adherence to dietary guidelines, which may be affected by psychological factors and patients’ attachment representations. This study aims to determine the association between attachment representations and dietary adherence, the correlation between dietary adherence and weight loss, and whether dietary adherence mediates the relationship between attachment representations and weight reduction post-surgery. A longitudinal study was conducted involving 105 patients who underwent laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Psychological issues and attachment representations were evaluated preoperatively, while dietary adherence was measured at 6 and 12 months post-surgery. Patients’ anthropometric data were extracted from medical records. Multiple linear and logistic regression analyses, along with mediation analyses utilizing bootstrapping resampling techniques, were performed. Attachment anxiety, characterized by fear of social rejection and abandonment, was significantly linked to lower dietary adherence at both 6 months (p = 0.009) and 12 months (p = 0.006) post-surgery. Furthermore, dietary adherence at 6 months was significantly associated with weight loss at 1 year (p = 0.003), with dietary adherence serving as a mediator (β = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.19-1.04) in the relationship between preoperative attachment anxiety and postoperative weight loss. Findings indicate that patients with higher levels of attachment anxiety exhibit reduced adherence to dietary recommendations 6 months after gastric bypass surgery, which adversely affects their weight loss trajectory during the initial postoperative year. [NPID: attachment, dietary adherence, social rejection, attachment anxiety, bypass surgery]
Year: 2015
