Evaluation of depressive symptoms and quality of life in obese patients

S. Angay; F. Haydardedeoglu; S. Kirim; E. Bozkirli; A. Canataroglu

Objective: Obesity is a chronic disorder and a serious public health problem. Obesity which affects quality of life cause several physical and psychological problems. The aim of the current study was to evaluate depressive symptoms and quality of life in a group of obese patients.

Material and methods: A total of 203 subjects, 103 obese patients with no chronic disorders except diabetes mellitus and hypertension and 100 healthy subjects with normal weight were included the study. As subgroups, patients were assessed as obesity group and obesity with diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension. Data was collected through a face to face questionnaire and by body weight and height measurements. Obesity was defined as body mass index of >30 kg/m². All subjects were evaluated with the Beck depression inventory (BDI) and short form-36 (SF-36).

Results: In total, 26.1% of individuals had combined obesity, diabetes mellitus and hypertension; 24.6% had only obesity. The mean age was 39.8±10.1 years. The mean BMI was 28.4±6 (min: 19.0, max: 39.0). There was a statistically significant difference between the study groups in terms of age, sex, education, marital status, number of pregnancy, smoking story and socioeconomic status (P<0.05 for each). There was not a statistically significant correlation between obesity and BDI (P>0.05). SF-36 scores of the healthy subjects with normal weight were higher than the scores of the obese patients and also SF-36 scores of the pure obese patients were higher than the scores of the obese patients with diabetes and hypertension (P<0.05 for each).

Conclusion: In this study, it was demonstrated that obesity and the accompanying chronic disorders like diabetes mellitus, hypertension poorly affected to the quality of life. Preventive measures are necessary before the complications afflict to the patients.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.

**Table 1** The comparison of scale measurements between study groups.
	Control	Obese	Obese and chronic disorders	P value
Beck depression Inventory	6.5±5.7 6 (0–32)	6.7±8.3 4.5 (0–42)	8.2±6.3 7 (0–25)	0.126
Physical functioning	27.8±2.7 28 (18–30)	26.3±3.1 26.5 (19–30)	23.9±3.6 24 (13–30)	<0.001
Role limitations due to physical problems	7.5±2.3 8 (4–28)	6.2±1.9 7.5 (4–8)	5.2±1.7 4 (4–8)	<0.001
Social functioning	9.6±1.7 10 (1–11)	8.9±2.2 10 (3–11)	8.5±2.1 9 (4–11)	<0.001
Pain	9.4±1.3 10 (5–11)	7.6±2.4 8 (2–11)	7.4±2.1 8 (3–11)	<0.001
Mental health	24.2±2.9 25 (13–28)	21.6±5 23 (11–33)	21.2±4.1 22 (12–28)	<0.001
Role limitations due to emotional problems	5.4±0.9 6 (3–6)	4.5±1.4 4.5 (3–6)	3.7±1.1 3 (3–6)	<0.001
Vitality	18.4±2.8 19 (9–22)	15.1±4.3 16.5 (5–23)	14.1±3.3 15 (9–22)	<0.001
General health perceptions	19.5±2.9 20 (11–24)	16.7±3.8 17 (8–23)	14.9±3.8 16 (8–23)	<0.001

Endocrine Abstracts

P1278