Introduction: Being overweight or obese has become a major global health problem. The impact of excess weight on physical, psychological and social wellbeing is increasingly acknowledged. The main aim of the study was to evaluate the factors associated with the increased body mass index and its impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of pre-obese and obese subjects.
Method: In the cross-sectional study 266 subjects over the age of 18 years (119 women and 147 men) undergoing weight reduction training for obesity in a primary care setting have participated .Apart from the socio-demographic and health characteristic data, self-reported HRQoL through SF12,physical activity and impact of weight through IPAQ and IWQoL lite questionnaires were also collected.
Result: BMI had a negative correlation with the Physical and mental score in HRQoL (r=-.230, -.145). Subjects with increased BMI or obese also had low physical activity and positive correlation to IWQoL total score. The impact of weight on QoL was more with obese subjects than pre-obese (mean difference 7.813; p<0.05).
Conclusion: Reduced physical activity, more age and light work style contributed to increased body weight and it was associated with the medication, hypertension and body pains. And increased body weight had more impact on physical health, emotional well-being, and psychosocial health.