Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable mortality in Canada. Despite the critical role psychological factors play in the development and maintenance of obesity, the best treatment for extreme obesity is bariatric surgery. Although effective in reducing weight, this procedure alone does not address the underlying psychological factors and behavioural compliance issues that often lead to relapse, and as a result, up to half of patients begin to regain their weight within the first two years following the surgery. Motivational interviewing (MI), a client-centered strategy for enhancing intrinsic motivation for change, is efficacious in improving a variety of health behaviours, including eating behaviours. I am proposing to conduct the first study to examine whether MI may constitute a brief, effective intervention for improving psychosocial outcomes in obese patients who have undergone bariatric surgery. Participants will be recruited from the Bariatric Surgery Program at Toronto Western Hospital one year post-surgery. It is hypothesized that, relative to wait list controls, the MI group will report greater self-efficacy for change and improved eating behaviours with implications for subsequent improvements in weight loss and psychosocial functioning (i.e. depression, quality of life). Psychosocial intervention research in the field of bariatric care is currently listed among the CIHR research priority areas due to varied treatment response, high relapse rates, and re-emergence of medical comorbidities. The identification of cost effective psychosocial interventions, such as MI, that hold promise as adjunct treatments to bariatric surgery will become increasingly important as the prevalence rate of obesity and number of bariatric surgeries performed in Canada continues to rise. If MI is found to be effective, the MI protocol could eventually be delivered to MI to patients registered with other centres in the Ontario Bariatric Network and perhaps beyond.