Marriage may hurt weight-loss chances.

• Position: Surgery

Spouses ideally could play a key role in helping patients lose pounds and keep them off after weight-loss surgery, but being married actually might work against that objective, researchers from Ohio State University, Columbus, have found.

Led by Megan Ferriby, a graduate student in human sciences, the researchers concluded that the impact of weight-loss surgery extends to a person's romantic relationships and likely to the entire family. In some cases, married patients lost less weight than their single peers. There also is evidence that a married couple's relationship could deteriorate post-surgery.

"Food is so central to family routines and celebrations, and when you undergo a surgery that so vastly impacts your ability to eat as you did before, family members take notice," Ferriby relates.

She and Keeley Pratt, Ferriby's advisor and assistant professor of human sciences, indicate that what they found in this study has propelled them to look more closely at the role of romantic and family relationships--and they think what they have uncovered could suggest that spouses and other family members should be included in the...