Bariatric surgery is associated with a 50% fall in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality and a 38% reduction in all-cause mortality over nearly five years’ follow-up, a population-based study shows.

Furthermore, the procedure is associated with reduced incidence of obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and ischaemic heart disease by between 54% and 67%, depending on the condition, the authors say.

The findings could be useful for clinicians when discussing potential surgery with patients, they suggest.

The UK and Swedish researchers aimed to determine the effects of bariatric surgery at a population level with their pooled meta-analysis, including only regional or national registry studies that compared people who underwent weight-reducing surgery with a control cohort who did not.