Obesity can cause many problems for the people suffering from it. Apart from struggling with weight, people dealing with obesity also suffer from various medical conditions. Obesity can even obstruct the course of treatment therapies for other medical conditions.
According to reports from a study in the February Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, obese patients who require a kidney transplant have less chance to get it done due to their condition.
A team of researchers led by Dr. Dorry L. Segev of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine used data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). They examined how obesity affects waiting times for kidney transplantation.
Dr. Segev said, “The results identify a potential bias in organ allocation that is not consistent with the goals of our allocation system.” He further added, “Obese patients are waiting longer for kidney transplants when compared with their non-obese counterparts, even after adjusting for all medical factors tracked through UNOS.”
This team of researchers analyzed data on more than 132,000 patients who required kidney transplants from 1995 to 2004. As obesity increased among these people, the likelihood of receiving a kidney transplant also decreased.
The chances of receiving a kidney transplant among severely obese people were 27 percent lower when compared with patients with a normal weight. It was 44 percent lower for morbidly obese patients.
The physicians were likely to bypass extremely obese patients. The chances of being bypassed among severely obese patients were 11 percent higher and 22 percent higher among morbidly obese patients.
Dr. Sergev says, “It is possible that providers are bypassing obese patients and instead transplanting non-obese patients because they feel that kidneys are a scarce resource and they want the kidneys to go to the patients who will benefit most from them.”
Obese patients might have to take serious action against their weight in order to heighten their chances of receiving an organ transplant.
