Relationship between health-related quality of life and clustering of metabolic syndrome diagnostic components

To examine the association of the number of metabolic syndrome diagnostic components (MetS-DC) with health-related quality of life (HR-QOL).

We examined the baseline data from 4,480 healthy workers in Japan (3,668 men and 812 women) aged 19–69 years. We assessed HR-QOL based on scores for five scales of the SF-36. We defined four components for MetS in this study as follows: (1) high blood pressure (BP); (2) dyslipidemia; (3) impaired glucose tolerance; and (4) overweight: a body mass index ≥25 kg/m². Logistic regression analysis adjusted for lifestyle factors was used to examine the association of the number of MetS-DC with the HR-QOL sub-scales.

Those who had 0–4 MetS-DC accounted for 2,287, 1,135, 722, 282, and 54 participants. The number of MetS-DC inversely contributed significantly to General Health (norm-based scoring >50) (odd ratios [OR] 0.59–0.82, P < 0.05) and positively associated with Mental Health (OR 1.37, P < 0.05).

When adjusted for lifestyle factors, the number of MetS-DC was inversely associated with General Health and positively with Mental Health in men and women.