The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible associations between personality, psychological, sociodemographic factors, physical activity, eating behavior and the influences of these variables on weight regain of patients undergoing BS, considering the interactions between these variables in an adaptive complex system measured in a network analysis, characterizing a novelty in the literature.
Our findings revealed that there is a negative relationship between weight gain and personality traits: disinterest and negative affectivity (PID-5-SF) and these are associated with depressive, anxiety and stress behaviors (DASS 21) reflecting on bulimic and/or compulsive eating behavior (BITE and ECAP). The literature is scarce in the investigation between changes in eating behavior and weight recovery after BS [37–38]. However, some studies have observed that the mental health of the patient is one of the most important factors in the maintenance and weight gain after surgical intervention [39–41]. In this sense, the occurrence of binge eating in obese candidates for BS is frequent [42–44]. In the study by Cella et al. [44], the authors observed that the prevalence of periodic compulsive eating disorders in candidates for BS ranges from 2 to 49% [45].
Although different authors claim that the occurrence of binge eating, depression and anxiety are not predictive factors regarding the magnitude of weight loss and maintenance or recurrence of compulsive disorders after BS [46–48], our findings reveal that there is a negative relationship between weight gain and symptoms that suggest personality traits associated with depressive, anxiety and stress behaviors, which, consequently, correlate with periodic compulsive eating disorders. Similar studies, although with different statistical perspectives, demonstrate that risk factors that compromise physical and psychological well-being, both in the preoperative period and in the postoperative period of BS, are associated with unbalanced diet, lack of physical activity and psychological disorders [48]. For example, the study by Figueiredo et al. [49], who investigated the types of personalities in obese women and post-BS, reported that participants with introverted attitudes showed a higher prevalence of severe binge eating, recent and lifelong suicidal thoughts, when compared to participants extrovert. In this perspective, the study by Freire et al. [38] observed that obese candidates for BS with episodes of binge eating have a high prevalence of depressive and anxious symptoms.
In our study beyond personality, depression, anxiety and stress, we added information about and how these psychological factors act in a network with sociodemographic factors, binge eating, physical activity and weight gain in patients 18 to 144 months after BS. Our findings revealed that bariatric patients who have a lower income and better education have a greater weight regain. With regard to the association between income and overweight, similar data have been reported in previous studies, which state that a higher socioeconomic level is related to a lower risk of obesity [50–52–53]. In addition, the literature demonstrates a relationship between income and a healthier lifestyle, as people who have a higher income are more likely to practice physical activity and follow a dietary follow-up [54–56].
The factors that predict the susceptibility of patients to weight gain after BS are not fully known [38]. Studies state that weight recovery is a multifactorial process of complex etiology [56–57]. In our study we also investigated through an analysis of weight gain networks, which are the most sensitive factors to interventions from network indicators. We found that the items referring to personality characteristics: disinterest and negative affectivity and most items of the depression, anxiety and stress scale presented high expected influence, these items need to be urgently treated in these patients by professionals from different areas. We also elucidate from the indications of closenness centrality that the items of binge eating will be the most benefited from multidisciplinary interventions, which indicates that the treatment of patients with weight gain in the present study should focus on these psychological aspects, which, consequently, would improve the compulsive eating behavior.
Another point of limitation refers only to patients after BS (18 to 144 months post-surgery), since it is necessary to analyze the different preoperative and postoperative factors that possibly affect the loss process and weight regain, which would allow a more effective perioperative follow-up.