 Participants were candidates for bariatric surgery at Mt. Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, a hospital located in New York City that serves a predominantly African-American and Hispanic population. Eligibility criteria for surgery included either a BMI ≥40 or a BMI ≥35 kg/m2 with at least one illness related to obesity (e.g., type 2 diabetes, hypertension). Ineligibility criteria included active smoking, alcohol or other drug misuse, unstable major psychiatric disorder, severe food intake disorder, and any medical contraindication to anesthesia (e.g., uncontrolled respiratory or cardiac failure). Patients typically initiate the program by signing up for a weekly orientation, attending the first consult (which happens immediately after the orientation), and receiving a psychological evaluation. Patients were counted in our denominator if they attended at least the psychological evaluation. Patients who initiated, withdrew, and reinitiated were counted only once.