Health related quality of life in obese patients attending family medicine clinic in 6th October city in Egypt

Background: Obesity has reached epidemic proportions throughout the globe. There is an increased concern about obesity and its associated illnesses in the Arabic-speaking countries (East Mediterranean and northern Africa) and the factors which may be associated with it (Badran & Laher, 2011). According to WHO, the prevalence of obesity in Egyptian men was 22% and 48% in women (WHO, 2012). Obesity is not only a problem for the individual but is also a societal challenge because of its serious complications. Meanwhile, public awareness and understanding of obesity and its health impacts remain low in the region (El-Bayoumy et al., 2009). Aim of the study: The present study aim was to identify the risk factors of obesity among patients attending family medicine clinic in 6th October city in Egypt and to outline the health related quality of life among obese patients in the studied sample. Method: a cross sectional study was performed on 200 patients frequenting the family medicine clinic and were subjected to anthropometric measurements as well as interview to fill OSQOL and WHOQOL-BREF questionnaires. Results: The mean age of obese patients was (37.56 9.524) years, sixty percent of them were females. The majority of obese patients (88%) had positive family history and chronic diseases were significantly highly prevalent among the obese group like hypertension (33.33%), hypercholesterolemia (46.66%) and DM (17.33%). Concerning results of WHOQOL-BREF: Obese people had a significantly lower mean of physical domain (42.63±18.576), psychological domain (42.58±18.221), social domain (35.36±23.538) and environmental domain (43.67±19.536) than non obese group with significant difference. Conclusion: Lower quality of life was related to obesity, hence intense intra-sectoral and inter-sectoral efforts must be drawn to prevent and early detect obesity through programs that achieve weight gain prevention approaches.