RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Prioritization and willingness to pay for bariatric surgery: the patient perspective JF Canadian Journal of Surgery JO CAN J SURG FD Canadian Medical Association SP 33 OP 39 DO 10.1503/cjs.021212 VO 57 IS 1 A1 Richdeep S. Gill A1 Sumit R. Majumdar A1 Xiaoming Wang A1 Rebecca Tuepah A1 Scott W. Klarenbach A1 Daniel W. Birch A1 Shahzeer Karmali A1 Arya M. Sharma A1 Raj S. Padwal YR 2014 UL http://canjsurg.ca/content/57/1/33.abstract AB Background: Access to publicly funded bariatric surgery is limited, potential candidates face lengthy waits, and no universally accepted prioritization criteria exist. We examined patients’ perspectives regarding prioritization for surgery.Methods: We surveyed consecutively recruited patients awaiting bariatric surgery about 9 hypothetical scenarios describing patients waiting for surgery. Respondents were asked to rank the priority of these hypothetical patients on the wait list relative to their own. Scenarios examined variations in age, clinical severity, functional impairment, social dependence and socioeconomic status. Willingness to pay for faster access was assessed using a 5-point ordinal scale and analyzed using multivariable logistic regression.Results: The 99 respondents had mean age of 44.7 ± 9.9 years, 76% were women, and the mean body mass index was 47.3 ± SD 7.6. The mean wait for surgery was 34.4 ± 9.4 months. Respondents assigned similar priority to hypothetical patients with characteristics identical to theirs (p = 0.22) and higher priority (greater urgency) to those exhibiting greater clinical severity (p < 0.001) and functional impairment (p = 0.003). Lower priority was assigned to patients at the extremes of age (p = 0.006), on social assistance (p < 0.001) and of high socioeconomic status (p < 0.001). Most (85%) respondents disagreed with payment to expedite access, although participants earning more than $80 000/year were less likely to disagree.Conclusion: Most patients waiting for bariatric surgery consider greater clinical severity and functional impairments related to obesity to be important prioritization indicators and disagreed with paying for faster access. These findings may help inform future efforts to develop acceptable prioritization strategies for publicly funded bariatric surgery.