Personality trait associations with quality-of-life outcomes following bariatric surgery: a systematic review

Background Obesity can be a signifcant challenge to health and quality of life (QoL). Bariatric surgery assists with  weight loss and may help improve QoL. However, not all patients beneft from surgery. Personality traits may be  related to QoL outcomes after bariatric surgery, but these associations are unclear. Purpose This research reviews the published literature on the associations between personality and QoL among  post‐operative bariatric patients. Method Four databases (CINAHL Complete, Medline with Full Text, APA PsycINFO, and Scopus) were searched from  inception until March 2022. Forward searching was conducted using Google Scholar, and backward reference citation  searches were also performed. Results Five studies met inclusion criteria yielding data from N=441 post-bariatric patients including both pre/post  and cross-sectional designs. Higher agreeableness was related to lower overall health-related QoL (HRQol) and gastric  HRQol and positively associated with psychological HRQol. Higher emotional stability was positively related to overall  HRQol. Higher impulsivity was negatively associated with mental HRQol and was unrelated to physical HRQol. Efects  for the remaining traits were either mainly mixed or null. Conclusion Personality traits may be associated with HRQol outcomes. However, it is difcult to reliably discern the  role of personality traits for HRQol and QoL outcomes given the methodological issues and few published studies.  More rigorous research is needed to address these issues and clarify possible associations.