Type D personality and metabolic syndrome among Finnish female municipal workers.

BACKGROUND: Type D personality is a combination of high negative affectivity (NA) and high social inhibition (SI). This personality trait is suspected to impair cardiovascular patients' recovery. The 2016 European Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice recommend screening of psychosocial risk factors as Type D personality. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between Type D personality and Metabolic syndrome (MetS) in working-age female population. METHODS: Six hundred thirty-four female employees with mean age of 48 ± 10 years were evaluated. Type D personality and its components (NA) and (SI) were screened with DS14 questionnaire. The definition of MetS was based on measurements done by trained medical staff. We investigated the relationship between Mets and Type D personality, NA and SI using the logistic regression models adjusting for age, education years, leisure-time physical activity, smoking, alcohol use and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: The prevalence of Type D personality was 10.6% (n = 67) [95% CI: 8.3 to 13.2] and MetS 34.7% (n = 220). Type D personality or its subcomponents were not associated with MetS. Women with Type D personality had significantly worse quality of sleep and lower LTPA. They were also more often unsatisfied with their economic situation, they had more often depressive symptoms and psychiatric disorders than non-D type persons. There were no differences in risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. CONCLUSION: Screening for Type D personality among working- age, reasonably healthy female population seems not to be practical method for finding persons with risk for cardiovascular disease.

Body mass index and health-related quality of life in apparently healthy individuals.

PURPOSE: Obesity is known to be associated with a range of chronic medical comorbidities, but little is known about the impact of overweight and obesity on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in persons without chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to assess HRQoL, body mass index (BMI) and health behavior patterns in a community sample of subjects who had no long-lasting medical comorbidities METHODS: We assessed HRQoL in 1,187 apparently healthy individuals (mean age 57 ± 7 years), of whom 24 % were classified as normal weight, 49 % as overweight, 20 % as obese and 7 % as very obese. Two different instruments of HRQoL were used: the generic Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire and the preference-based instrument EuroQol (EQ-5D). RESULTS: All physical components of the SF-36 decreased linearly according to BMI categories in women. In men, only poorer physical functioning scale showed linearity with rising BMI. Scores on the mental components of the SF-36 did not differ by BMI categories in either gender. The EQ-5D index and EuroQol visual analogue scale scores decreased linearly with rising BMI only in women. CONCLUSIONS: In apparently healthy middle-aged subjects, physical HRQoL decreases with increasing level of BMI and more so in women than in men. Mental components of HRQoL do not differ between the categories of BMI in either gender.

Weight change and health related quality of life: population-based longitudinal study of the effects of health related quality of life on the success of weight management.

Our aim was to investigate how health related quality of life (HRQoL) influence on the success of weight management and how to utilize this information. Population-based longitudinal study. A community sample of apparently healthy middle-aged individuals living in Western Finland were invited to clinical survey in order to assess total cardiovascular risk among people who had at least one cardiovascular risk factor but no previous diagnoses of any long-lasting disease. A total of 2,752 individuals, aged 45-70 years, enrolled. The individuals completed HRQoL questionnaire before laboratory tests were completed and overweight people were instructed to lose weight at least 5 %. A physician examined 1950 high risk people during the years 2005-2007. Three years later a trained nurse invited them for a control examination, 1,287 high risk subjects participated, 1,049 had completely filled the questionnaires and 906 of them were overweight or obese at baseline. We assessed the success in weight management in this group of participants. The subjects (53 % women with mean age of 59 ± 7 years) had mean body mass index of 39.6 ± 4.6 kg/m². During the 3 years follow-up period 18 % of them had lost weight ≥5, 70 % had stabilized their weight and 12 % had gained weight ≥5 %. Subjects who had gained weight had worse results in every item of HRQoL both mental and physical at baseline. The results of the HRQoL questionnaire suggested that obesity and deteriorating quality of life interrelate.

Impaired glucose metabolism and health related quality of life.

AIMS: We aimed at investigating whether different categories of glucose tolerance have any effect on a person's HRQoL. METHODS: Population-based cross-sectional study conducted as a community sample of apparently healthy middle-aged individuals living in Western Finland. The subjects of the study, 1383 individuals, aged 45-70 years, had at least one cardiovascular risk factor but no previous diagnoses of either diabetes or cardiovascular disease. They completed health related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaire before the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed to diagnose the gategories of glucose tolerance. RESULTS: Persons with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (NDM) had lower scores for physical functioning, general health and emotional role than subjects with normal glucose tolerance. CONCLUSION: The results of the HRQoL questionnaire demonstrated that NDM is negatively associated with HRQoL, but prediabetes - IFG or IGT - does not.

Ankle-brachial index and health-related quality of life.

BACKGROUND: Data from population studies using ankle-brachial index (ABI) measurement to screen patients for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) demonstrate that most patients with PAD have no symptoms or atypical symptoms besides classical intermittent claudication. We aimed at comparing health-related quality of life and ABI in a cohort of cardiovascular risk persons in a general population. METHODS: SF-36 questionnaire was completed and ABI measured from 915 individuals aged 45-70 years with hypertension, metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes, newly detected diabetes, body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m(2), or a 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease death of 5% or more according to the Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) system. None of the subjects had symptoms of intermittent claudication. RESULTS: The prevalence of PAD (defined as ABI ≤ 0.90) and borderline PAD (defined as ABI 0.91-1.00) were 5% (95% CI 4-7%) and 20% (95% CI 18-23%), respectively. Patients with PAD had significantly lower quality of life dimension scores for physical functioning, role-physical, general health, and vitality than subjects with normal ABI. Among those with borderline PAD, quality of life was reduced on the general health perception compared to subjects with normal ABI. CONCLUSION: Health-related quality of life of individuals with asymptomatic or atypical PAD or borderline PAD is worse than that of individuals with normal ABI. The level of ABI is independently related to physical functioning.