The relationship between obesity and health-related quality of life of office workers.
[Purpose] This study aimed to understand how office workers' obesity, anxiety and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) affect each other. [Subjects] The study was conducted from February 1 of 2013 to March 31 of 2014 and targeted a total of 143 office workers working in Seoul, Republic of Korea. [Methods] The study collected data using both an assessment tool and questionnaire in order to learn the subjects' obesity index, anxiety and HRQOL. [Results] The study revealed a significant difference in the total scores in regard to how the obesity index influences anxiety, mental HRQOL and total HRQOL. The more overweight and the heavier the subjects were, the more severe was the anxiety observed, which resulted in decreased scores for mental HRQOL and total HRQOL. Obesity turned out to be significantly correlated with anxiety, mental HRQOL and total HRQOL, and in terms of how much anxiety the subjects felt, there was a significant correlation with the total scores for physical HRQOL, mental HRQOL and total HRQOL. [Conclusion] The present study found that overweight and obese office workers are more anxious than office workers with normal weights, as the former have a lower mental HRQOL. It also suggests that overweight and obese office workers should improve their mental HRQOL through professional workout programs, which would help with their obesity problem. The study also suggests that subsequent research should be carried out to observe the results of any such workout programs applied in the future.
Department of Occupational Therapy, Sorabol College, Republic of Korea.
DeokJu
D
Kim
Department of Occupational Therapy, Health Science College, Honam University, Republic of Korea.
SooHee
S
Park
Korea Safety Culture Civil Solidarity, Republic of Korea.
DongJoo
D
Yang
Department of Occupational Therapy, Rehabilitation Science, Graduate School of Inje University, Republic of Korea.
MiLim
M
Cho
Department of Occupational Therapy, Hanlyo University, Republic of Korea.
ChanUk
C
Yoo
Department of Occupational Therapy, Kyongbuk College, Republic of Korea.
Juhyung
J
Park
Department of Occupational Therapy, Kyongbuk Science College, Republic of Korea.
Jaeyeop
J
Chung
Department of Healthcare Management, Catholic Kwandong University, Republic of Korea.
Eun Mi
EM
Choi
Gangdong Center for Dementia, Republic of Korea.
KyungHae
K
Han
Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Inje University, Republic of Korea.
YeongAe
Y
Yang
Health-related quality of life; Obesity; Office workers