Weight change and health related quality of life: population-based longitudinal study of the effects of health related quality of life on the success of weight management.

Our aim was to investigate how health related quality of life (HRQoL) influence on the success of weight management and how to utilize this information. Population-based longitudinal study. A community sample of apparently healthy middle-aged individuals living in Western Finland were invited to clinical survey in order to assess total cardiovascular risk among people who had at least one cardiovascular risk factor but no previous diagnoses of any long-lasting disease. A total of 2,752 individuals, aged 45-70 years, enrolled. The individuals completed HRQoL questionnaire before laboratory tests were completed and overweight people were instructed to lose weight at least 5 %. A physician examined 1950 high risk people during the years 2005-2007. Three years later a trained nurse invited them for a control examination, 1,287 high risk subjects participated, 1,049 had completely filled the questionnaires and 906 of them were overweight or obese at baseline. We assessed the success in weight management in this group of participants. The subjects (53 % women with mean age of 59 ± 7 years) had mean body mass index of 39.6 ± 4.6 kg/m². During the 3 years follow-up period 18 % of them had lost weight ≥5, 70 % had stabilized their weight and 12 % had gained weight ≥5 %. Subjects who had gained weight had worse results in every item of HRQoL both mental and physical at baseline. The results of the HRQoL questionnaire suggested that obesity and deteriorating quality of life interrelate.