Quality of Life and its Association with Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Community Health Care Program Population

Abstract

Martinelli LMB, Mizutani BM, Mutti A, D`elia MPB, Coltro RS, Matsubara BB. Quality of life and its association with cardiovascular risk factors in a Community Health Care Program population. Clinics. 2008;63:783-8. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate quality of life in a population that attended a specific community event on health care education, and to investigate the association of their quality of life with the presence of cardiovascular risk factors INTRODUCTION: Interest in health-related quality of life is growing worldwide as a consequence of increasing rates of chronic disease. However, little is known about the association between quality of life and cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: This study included 332 individuals. Demographics, blood pressure, body mass index, and casual glycemia were evaluated. The brief version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire on quality of life was given to them. The medians of the scores obtained for the physical, psychological, emotional, and environmental domains were used as cutoffs to define "higher" and "lower" scores. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to define the parameters associated with lower scores. RESULTS: Diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and obesity were associated with lower scores in the physical domain. Dyslipidemia was also associeted with lower scores in the psychological domain. Male gender and regular physical activity had protective effects on quality of life. Aging was inversely associated with decreased quality of life in the environmental domain. CONCLUSION:The presence of cardiovascular risk factors is related to a decreased quality of life. Conversely, male gender and regular physical activity had protective effects on quality of life. These findings suggest that exercising should be further promoted by health-related public programs, with a special focus on women.

Nutritional Status and Quality of Life in HIV-infected patients

“…In this study, a moderate-high WC was a significant contributor to a worst outcome in general QoL; this is strongly associated to a poor QoL (34). Exercise has been shown to reduce WC in HIV-patients (35); therefore, there may be a role for exercise as a potential strategy to improve nutritional status and, consequently, QoL (31,35).…”

Health-Related Quality of Life in Adults with Metabolic Syndrome: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007–2008

“…Little seems to be known about the relationship between dyslipidemia and impaired HRQoL. A study has reported that dyslipidemia was associated with lower scores in the physical and psychological domains [38]. …”

The use of HeartQoL in patients with coronary heart disease: Association with risk factors and European reference values. The EUROASPIRE IV study of the European Society of Cardiology

“…Substantiating previously reported findings in the general population as well as in CHD patients, worse HeartQoL outcomes were found in female patients (14;19;20). Several underlying causes have been suggested; some suggest women tend to over report their problems during interviews because women verbalize better than men (21); others argue that women perceive symptoms in a different way (22;23); also, higher depression rates (which has also been seen in the EUROAPSIRE III and IV surveys), lower sense of coherence (i.e., experiencing the world as comprehensible, meaningful and manageable) and social status (continuing demand in home environment) are referred to as reasons for worse HRQL outcomes in females (24)(25)(26). Similar to the general population, worse HeartQoL scores were seen with increasing age due to the aging process which is associated with a deterioration of both physical and mental abilities (27).…”