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Pathways linking obesity to health-related quality of life

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Abstract

Purpose

Obesity is a well-recognized risk factor for impaired health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Nevertheless, few studies have investigated the mechanisms underlying the obesity-HRQOL associations. In this study, we explored potential mediators of the associations between obesity and HRQOL.

Methods

Body mass index (BMI), an indicator of obesity, and HRQOL data were available for the 34,565 individuals 20 years of age and older participating in the cross-sectional Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2012. HRQOL was measured by the EuroQol five-dimension descriptive system. Path analysis was performed to assess the contributions of obesity-related diseases and self-rated health (SRH) on the relationships between obesity and HRQOL.

Results

In men, obesity was negatively associated with HRQOL through diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia and positively associated with HRQOL through SRH. These opposite indirect effects offset one another and produced a non-significant association between obesity and HRQOL in men. However, in women, obesity was directly associated with HRQOL and indirectly associated with HRQOL through diabetes mellitus and SRH. Since these associations were in the same negative direction, the negative obesity-HRQOL association was clearly observed in women.

Conclusions

Obesity was negatively associated with HRQOL through obesity-related diseases in both genders. However, in men, the positive association between obesity and SRH resulted in a non-significant association of obesity with HRQOL.

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Notes

  1. The EQ-5D score = 1 − [0.05 + 0.096 × (1: some, 0: no or severe problem in mobility) + 0.418 × (1: severe, 0: no or some problem in mobility) + 0.046 × (1: some, 0: no or severe problem in self-care) + 0.136 × (1: severe, 0: no or some problem in self-care) + 0.051 × (1: some, 0: no or severe problem in usual activity) + 0.208 × (1: severe, 0: no or some problem in usual activity) + 0.037 × (1: some, 0: no or severe problem in pain/discomfort) + 0.151 × (1: severe, 0: no or some problem in pain/discomfort) + 0.043 × (1: some, 0: no or severe problem in anxiety/depression) + 0.158 × (1: severe, 0: no or some problem in anxiety/depression) + 0.05 × (1: severe problem in mobility or self-care or usual activity or pain/discomfort or anxiety/depression, 0: else)]. The EQ-5D score = 1 when no problem in mobility, self-care, usual activity, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression.

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Funding

The study was not supported by any fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for International Health Research, Rhode Island Hospital, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, 02903, USA

    Sangshin Park

  2. Department of Pediatrics, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 55 Claverick Street, Suite 101, Providence, RI, 02903, USA

    Sangshin Park

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Correspondence to Sangshin Park.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Park, S. Pathways linking obesity to health-related quality of life. Qual Life Res 26, 2209–2218 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-017-1565-x

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