Evaluation of life quality and the factors affecting the prevelance of obesity in patients applied to Family Medicine outpatients in Dicle University

Introduction and Aim: Obesity is a global public health problem and is one of the first preventable causes of death in the world that can affect many tissues, organs and systems and cause morbidity and mortality. Detecting factors affecting obesity and its prevalance is an important step in dealing with obesity that is a public health problem of increasing prevalance. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of obesity in the patients admitted to the Family Medicine outpatient clinic of Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospital, to evaluate the factors affecting obesity frequency and to determine the quality of life of the patients. Material and Methods: 249 patients aged between 18- 65 years, who applied to outpatient clinic of family medicine at Dicle University Faculty of Medicine between 15.12.2018 and 15.03.2019, were included in this cross-sectional study. The patients' body mass index and SF-36 scores were calculated and measurements of arterial blood pressure were performed. In this study, the relationship between sociodemographic factors and body mass index was examined and the quality of life levels of the patients were evaluated. The analyis of the data was carried out by using SPSS 24 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Results: Of the participants, 53% were male, 47% were female and the average age was 40.26±11.81 in years. In our study, obesity prevalance was 33.4% in women, 28% in men, 30.5% in general; average BMI was 28.32±5.56 kg/m² in women and 27.82±4.42 kg/m² in men. It is observed that when participants become older obesity increased, obesity is more frequent in married person and when the level of education increases obesity decreased. There was no significant relationship between obesity and income status of the participants. No significant relationship was found between smoking and alcohol use of the participants and obesity. The presence of obesity in first-order relatives and the increase in obesity frequency also point to the importance of heredity. It was found that arterial blood pressure raised significantly as the BMI group increased. Quality of life of men was higher in all subheadings than women. In our study, quality of life decreases with increasing age and BMI. Conclusion: As a result of our study, it was seen that the prevalence of obesity reached serious dimensions and obesity caused a decrease in quality of life. This result shows that family physicians have a great role in the fight against obesity and related diseases which are common in primary care. increasing the knowledge and sensitivity of family physicians about obesity will positively affect the health status and quality of life of individuals. KEYWORDS: Family medicine, obesity, body mass index (BKİ), prevalence, quality of life