MMPI PROFILES OF FEMALE CANDIDATES FOR OBESITY SURGERY - A CLUSTER ANALYTIC APPROACH

Background: Early attempts to characterize personality in obese person s led to the conclusion that the severely obese are not homogeneous on personality measures, More recently, cluster analysis procedures have been applied to identify meaningful personality subtypes in populatio ns of persons with severe obesity; some progress has been made in this effort, but researchers have indicated the need for replication in ot her settings, Methods: In the present study, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was administered to 163 female candidate s for intestinal bypass surgery. Results: Eight clusters were identifi ed. Of the MMPI profiles, 71% were in one of four normal limit cluster s. The remainder were distributed across four clusters, all beyond nor mal limits. Conclusions: Present and previous results appear to conver ge on representative personality subtypes in severe obesity, Identific ation of such meaningful subgroups of candidates for obesity surgery m ay enhance the prediction of surgery outcomes, and yield a better unde rstanding of personality in severely obese women.