**1. Introduction**

Bariatric individuals not only present with specific medical complications and more prevalent risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, this population also has significantly greater potential for functional decline. Graded increase in activities of daily living (ADL) limitation was observed with increasing body weight [1]. Rehabilitation medicine approach to address the needs of a bariatric individual encompasses both ends of the management spectrum: to restore and prevent further deterioration of physical function associated or aggravated with excess body weight; as well as to enhance post-operative results with a sustainable weight management strategy.

The rehabilitation medicine approach to function can be viewed from The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) concept to better understand the interactive nature of a chronic health condition such as obesity and formulate a rehabilitation plan to address physical, psychological and socio-environmental barriers to bariatric-related disability [2, 3] (**Table 1**). Individualisation of care from all disciplines involved in the bariatric population


#### **Table 1.**

*Brief ICF Core set for Obesity [3].*

to produce long-term sustainable results can also be deduced by understanding the dynamics of a disease process through this concept. We shall discuss the approaches to a bariatric evaluation, rehabilitation intervention and functional outcome in two parts with special focus on prehabilitation and peri-operative rehabilitation.
