Objective: We sought to document health-related quality of life (HRQoL) impairment and depressive symptomatology in adolescents with extreme obesity considering surgical weight loss.
Study design: A retrospective review of clinical data was conducted for 33 consecutive extremely obese adolescents presenting for evaluation at a bariatric surgery program for adolescents. Adolescents completed the PedsQL and the Beck Depression Inventory. Mothers completed the parent-proxy PedsQL and the Child Behavior Checklist.
Results: HRQoL scores from both informants were markedly impaired relative to published norms on healthy youth. Moderate agreement was found for self-reported and parent-proxy HRQoL. Approximately 30% of youth met criteria for clinically significant depressive symptoms when based on self-report and 45% of youth when based on mother report. Only 21% of youth were currently engaged in some form of psychological treatment (eg, medication or therapy).
Conclusions: The day-to-day life of adolescents with extreme obesity seeking bariatric surgery is globally and severely impaired. However, only some of these adolescents demonstrate clinically significant levels of depressive symptomatology. These data will be critical to the development of more informed patient selection criteria and more efficacious treatment paradigms for this vulnerable pediatric subgroup.