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. 2021 Jul;31(7):3031-3039.
doi: 10.1007/s11695-021-05359-0. Epub 2021 Mar 30.

National Bariatric Surgery Registries: an International Comparison

Erman O Akpinar  1   2 , Perla J Marang-van de Mheen  3 , Simon W Nienhuijs  4 , Jan Willem M Greve  5   6   7 , Ronald S L Liem  8   9
Affiliations

National Bariatric Surgery Registries: an International Comparison

Erman O Akpinar et al. Obes Surg. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Introduction: Pooling population-based data from all national bariatric registries may provide international real-world evidence for outcomes that will help establish a universal standard of care, provided that the same variables and definitions are used. Therefore, this study aims to assess the concordance of variables across national registries to identify which outcomes can be used for international collaborations.

Methods: All 18 countries with a national bariatric registry who contributed to The International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) Global Registry report 2019 were requested to share their data dictionary by email. The primary outcome was the percentage of perfect agreement for variables by domain: patient, prior bariatric history, screening, operation, complication, and follow-up. Perfect agreement was defined as 100% concordance, meaning that the variable was registered with the same definition across all registries. Secondary outcomes were defined as variables having "substantial agreement" (75-99.9%) and "moderate agreement" (50-74.9%) across registries.

Results: Eleven registries responded and had a total of 2585 recorded variables that were grouped into 250 variables measuring the same concept. A total of 25 (10%) variables have a perfect agreement across all domains: 3 (18.75%) for the patient domain, 0 (0.0%) for prior bariatric history, 5 (8.2%) for screening, 6 (11.8%) for operation, 5 (8.8%) for complications, and 6 (11.8%) for follow-up. Furthermore, 28 (11.2%) variables have substantial agreement and 59 (23.6%) variables have moderate agreement across registries.

Conclusion: There is limited uniform agreement in variables across national bariatric registries. Further alignment and uniformity in collected variables are required to enable future international collaborations and comparison.

Keywords: Bariatric surgery; Common data elements; IFSO; National bariatric surgery registries; Obesity; Population-based.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart for identifying perfect agreement in variables across 11 national bariatric registries
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Boxplot for the median agreement rates of variables by domain
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Percentage of variables with a moderate, substantial, or perfect agreement by domain. Moderate agreement is 50–74.9% consensus, substantial agreement is 75–99.9% consensus, and perfect agreement is 100% consensus
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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