The Effect of Encouraging Patients Undergoing Obesity Surgery to Move on Physical Mobility, Recovery and Negative Effects of Surgery

Summary

Early mobilization and physical mobility have a critical role in minimizing complications after surgical procedures. Although there are a limited number of studies in the literature on the step count of bariatric surgery patients, there is no study focusing on interventions that promote mobilization in this patient group. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a mobilization incentive protocol on physical mobility, quality of recovery and complications in patients undergoing bariatric surgery.

This single-blind randomized controlled study will include 70 individuals who underwent bariatric surgery in the General Surgery ward of Kayseri City Hospital between July 2025 and June 2026. Patients will be followed up for 3 days after surgery, starting with the hospitalization process in the clinic before surgery. All participating patients will be administered preoperative patient information form, 6-minute walk test and International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Patients in the intervention group will be shown video-based mobilization training after bariatric surgery. The control group will not receive any intervention. Both groups will wear a smart watch at the time of the first mobilization (8th hour after surgery) and a patient follow-up form will be filled out. A reminder brochure will be hung in their rooms on the 1st postoperative day and a reminder text message will be sent to their cell phones on the 1st and 3rd days. The number of steps will be measured from the smart watch for three days postoperatively, complications will be followed according to the clavien dindo classification system and the Quality of Recovery-15 scale will be applied on the 3rd postoperative day. The analysis of the research data will be performed in IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 package program. When comparisons between groups are made, parametric tests will be used in the analysis of data showing normal distribution in numerical data, and non-parametric tests will be used in the analysis of data not showing normal distribution. Chi-square test will be used in the analysis of categorical variables.

The lack of protocols to increase mobilization emphasizes the importance and innovativeness of this study. The mobilization promotion protocol is expected to increase the physical activity level (number of steps) of bariatric surgery patients in the postoperative period, improve the quality of recovery and reduce complications. These findings will reveal the importance of mobilization incentive protocol by contributing to postoperative care strategies.

Conditions

• Physical Activity
• Bariatric Surgery
• Quality of Recovery
• Mobilization

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Mobilization Encouragement Protocol

This intervention includes a video-based education session delivered before surgery to encourage early mobilization, visual poster reminders in patient rooms on postoperative day 1, and SMS text message reminders sent to patients' phones on postoperative days 1 and 3. Participants will also wear a smart watch starting 8 hours after surgery through postoperative day 3 to monitor physical activity (step count). The goal is to increase physical activity levels, improve recovery quality, and reduce postoperative complications after bariatric surgery.

BEHAVIORAL

Smart Watch for Physical Activity Monitoring

Participants in the control group receive standard postoperative care without additional mobilization encouragement. They wear a smart watch starting 8 hours after surgery through postoperative day 3 to monitor physical activity (step count). However, they do not receive video education, posters, or SMS reminders.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• TC Erciyes University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Hatice Yüceler Kaçmaz, Associate Professor Doctor · TC Erciyes University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-08-01

Primary Completion

2026-08-01

Completion

2026-08-01