Health-related quality of life in adults with metabolic syndrome: the Korea national health and nutrition examination survey, 2007-2008.

BACKGROUND/AIMS An association between metabolic syndrome and impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is still controversial. We investigated the association between metabolic syndrome in itself and HRQoL in the Korean adult population. METHODS The study is a cross-sectional analysis of 8,941 adults ≥19 years of age who participated in the 2007 and 2008 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. EuroQoL five-dimension (EQ-5D), the EQ-5D index and the EQ visual analogue scale (EQ VAS) were used to assess HRQoL. RESULTS The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 26.2%. Compared to the participants without metabolic syndrome, those with metabolic syndrome were older and comprised a higher proportion of men. Moreover, participants with metabolic syndrome were more likely to have a lower education level, to be current smokers, to have activity limitation and to have more frequent metabolic abnormalities and comorbidities. Metabolic syndrome was associated with HRQoL based on EQ-5D and EQ VAS in simple regression analysis. However, metabolic syndrome was not significantly associated with HRQoL after adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, income, education level, marital status, obesity, diabetes mellitus, stroke, history of heart disease and chronic kidney disease for EQ-5D, and in addition history of depression for EQ VAS. CONCLUSION Metabolic syndrome in itself was not associated with impaired HRQoL after adjusting for confounding variables such as socio-demographic factors, medical comorbidities and obesity.