Weight loss enhances life quality in people with obesity

Individuals with obesity may improve their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) by losing weight, suggests a study.

The authors randomized 18 primary care clinics to a 24-month intensive lifestyle intervention or usual care and assessed generic HRQoL and weight-related QoL at baseline and months 6, 12, and 24. They also examined associations using repeated-measures linear multilevel models.

Some 803 persons with obesity were included in the sample. Changes in generic HRQoL did not differ by race or sex, and weight-related QoL did not differ by sex. However, Black people achieved less improvement in weight-related QoL relative to other races.

A graded association was noted between improvements in weight-related QoL and greater weight loss from baseline to 24 months: 7.4 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 5.1‒9.7) for individuals who lost <5 percent of their initial body weight, 15.0 (95 percent CI, 11.4‒18.5) for 5-percent to <10-percent weight loss, and 18.9 (95 percent CI, 15.4‒22.4) for ≥10-percent weight loss.

Notably, greater weight reduction also contributed to greater improvements in most generic HRQoL domains.

“Weight loss was associated with improvements in HRQoL, and race differences were identified in changes in weight-related QoL, highlighting the need for precision medicine approaches to weight loss,” the authors said.

“Future research should tailor the patient-reported outcomes to the study population by including disease-specific measurement tools when available and examine factors influencing the differential impact of patient sociodemographic characteristics on clinical treatment response to promote more equitable improvement,” they added.