Table 3.
The interpretation of risk after bariatric surgery
| Theoretical concepts | Theoretical code | Properties |
|---|---|---|
| Failing or giving up | Understanding failure as embedded in risk | Worrying about the risk of failing |
| Accepting setbacks as temporary failures that can be rectified | ||
| Not caring about failing | ||
| Moving forward | Adjustment period interpreted as a risk‐laden process that is both positive and negative | Accepting and working with the changes that surgery brings |
| Challenging the changes to life imposed by surgery | ||
| Finding mechanisms for dealing with awkward situations | ||
| Knowledge as empowering and gaining control | ||
| Feeling uncertain | Framing expectations, worries and beliefs as embedded in risk | Uncertainty is worrying |
| Uncertainty is an accepted part of the adjustment process | ||
| Worrying that surgery causes problems | ||
| Keeping secrets | Fearing that the risk of disclosure about having bariatric surgery will lead to being judged; continuous worries about what others think of them | Defining the difficult situations and in what contexts they occur |
| Explicating the difficult situations and the reasons underpinning these | ||
| What situations are more difficult and why | ||
| Support seeking | Acknowledgement of wanting or not needing support and the risks associated with both during adjustment | Defining factors affecting support seeking |
| What/who are defined as sources of support | ||
| What are the properties of support seekers and those who do not seek support | ||
| Feeling guilty | Reflecting on the effects of their previous obese state and its effect on themselves and others | Making up for lost time |
| Having had surgery (surgery did the work, not the person) | Accepting that surgery is a weight‐loss method that involves the person |