Improving Quality of Life
| Everyone wants to enjoy life. Improving quality of life is a good goal for everyone.
Two new studies focused on ways to improve your quality of life. The first study looked at individuals who already had health problems, such as diabetes or coronary heart disease. Researchers used 4 quality of life scales looking at issues such as activity limitations, energy and fatigue, health distress, and overall self-rated health status.
The two lifestyle practices that most eroded quality of life, even after adjusting for any diseases they had, were excessive body weight and smoking. All 4 quality of life scales showed significant decreases in quality of life in smokers and as body weight went up. Obesity was even a more significant factor in most cases than was their health problem.
The second study focused on quality of life and activity level in a group of 430 sedentary women who were all overweight and had elevated blood pressure. Baseline studies showed that 30 percent of the women reported a history of depression and 18 percent were currently taking medication for depression. The women were randomly divided into 4 activity groups. A control group made no changes, but the other 3 groups increased their activity levels. One group exercised 1.5 hours per week. Another group exercised 2.25 hours per week, and a third group got more than 3 hours of physical activity per week. All women completed quality of life assessments before and after the 6 months of training.
Here's what they found. Compared to the control (inactive) group, all the women in the other 3 activity groups showed improvement in quality of life measures, including physical health, social health, and mental health. The degree to which they improved was directly related to their activity level. The improvements were dose-response related – the more active, the more they improved, whether they lost weight or not. Those women in the control group (inactive) showed no improvement in quality of life.
The researchers concluded that in sedentary, overweight women, regular exercise improved physical and mental quality of life in a dose-dependent fashion (more exercise, more improvement) and the improvements were independent of weight loss.
While living longer is a great goal, improving quality of life may be even more desirable for many people. What advantage is it to live a long time if you are miserable much of the last 10-15 years? What can we learn? If you want to feel good and enjoy life, you need to live healthfully – avoid smoking, be physically active (more activity shows even more improvement), eat well, and maintain a healthy weight. These are key factors for enjoying a high quality of life – both physically and mentally.
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American Heart Journal. 2010 Feb;159(2):292-300.
Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009 Feb;169(3):269-278.
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