Abstract
Obesity is a primary health issue. This study aimed at assessing health related quality of life (HRQOL) among overweight/obese adults. Participants were referred to Nutri Health centers in the West Bank for weight management programs during the period between 1 of May 2019 to 30 November 2020. A total of 466 participants were involved in the study. Body composition, anthropometric measurements, socio-demographic data, and HRQOL were determined at baseline and after 3 months. The results showed a significant decline in the mean weight of participants from 93.9 ± 17.2Kg to 83.9 ± 15.7 kg. More than half (51.3%) of participants had weight reduction more than 10%. Participants reported significant improvement in all components of (36-SF) HRQOL after 3 months compared to baseline scores. Moreover, participants with ≥ 10% loss of baseline weight had a greater improvement in the overall HRQOL scores by 14.6 ± 17.6 (mean ± SD) compared to 9.7 ± 15.0 for those who lost < 10% baseline body weight. Moreover, the Role limitation due to physical health achieved the highest score after 3 months by (mean ± SD) of 93.0 ± 20.7 compared to baseline score of 80.8 ± 32.2. The highest improvement was reported in Physical functioning with 18.9 ± 27.3 and 10.9 ± 27.3 for participants who lost ≥ 10% and < 10%, respectively. In conclusion, weight management programs seemed to be not only effective to induce weight loss but also to improve HRQOL. The mechanism behind this improvement should be investigated in light of decreased levels of inflammation and changes in gut microbiota.