Association between psychological distress, subjective sleep quality and health-related quality of life in patients with obesity: A preliminary study

Abstract

Objective:Recently, increasing prevalence of obesity has been elucidated for a major public health problem. Previous research propose that obesity may be significantly associated with psychological distress, considerable disturbances of sleep and health-related quality of life (HRQL). The aim of this study is to examine the psychological distress, subjective sleep quality and HRQL in a group of patient diagnosed with obesity.Methods:A total of 57 obesity patients and 53 healthy control subjects were involved in the study and self-administered questionnaires was submitted to measure by using the General Symptomatic Index of Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), HRQL (Short-Form 36). Several clinical and socio-demographic data were also recorded.Results:HRQL was significantly reduced in obesity as compared to healthy controls. The obesity group exhibited greater psychopathology and suffered greater disturbed sleep quality than did controls. In particular, psychopathological distress was positively correlated with global PSQI scores.Conclusions:Obesity is associated with psychopathological distress, poor subjective sleep quality and reduced perceived health status. Recognition of sleep disturbances in obese patients is also relevant to management, because effective strategies to improve sleep in this patient group might also lead to vast improvements in their psychopathological distress and perceived health status.