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Comparative Study
. 2013 Apr 15;168(5):787-93.
doi: 10.1530/EJE-12-1078. Print 2013 May.

A direct comparison of quality of life in obese and Cushing's syndrome patients

Smita Baid Abraham  1 , Brent S Abel, Domenica Rubino, Tonja Nansel, Sheila Ramsey, Lynnette K Nieman
Affiliations
Comparative Study

A direct comparison of quality of life in obese and Cushing's syndrome patients

Smita Baid Abraham et al. Eur J Endocrinol. .

Abstract

Objective: Obese (OB) individuals and patients with Cushing's syndrome (CS) often have similar clinical presentations. While each group has reduced health-related quality of life (HRQL), it is not known whether the degree of impairment is different and might distinguish between them. The objective of this study was to compare HRQL in these two populations.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Methods: Three hundred and twenty-seven OB patients (48.1±11.7 years; 72.5% women) with weight gain and at least two features of CS were recruited from an outpatient weight management clinic. Sixty-six untreated patients with CS (41.6±13.2 years; 78.8% women) presented to the NIH Clinical Center for evaluation. Subjects completed the SF-36 survey and a locally created symptom questionnaire.

Results: After adjusting for symptom count, OB patients had a significantly higher (better HRQL) mean physical component summary (PCS) score than CS patients (44.9±0.6 vs 35.4±1.5, P<0.0001). However, the mean mental component summary (MCS) score was lower (worse HRQL) in the OB group (41.6±0.6 vs 50.7±1.6, P<0.0001). Symptom count showed significant correlations with PCS and MCS scores. BMI correlated with PCS (r=-0.29) in OB but not in CS patients. BMI was not associated with MCS in either group.

Conclusion: HRQL is significantly different between OB and CS patients. Surprisingly, after adjusting for symptom count, OB patients showed worse mental health scores than the CS population. Significant differences in HRQL and symptom count may suggest which OB patients should be screened for CS.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
BMI (kg/m2) categories in obese subjects (white bars) vs Cushing’s syndrome patients (shaded bars). Not overweight (BMI <25.0); overweight (BMI 25.0–29.99); obesity class I (30.0–34.99), obesity class II (35.0–39.99), and obesity class III (≥40.0).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean unadjusted SF-36 subscale scores ± S.E.M. in obese subjects (white bars) vs Cushing’s syndrome (CS) patients (shaded bars). Domain scores can range from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating better QOL. For each subscale, each group had significantly lower scores than the US population mean of 50.0 (P<0.0001). *P<0.05 for obese vs CS scores.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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