Influence of Metabolic Syndrome versus Musculoskeletal Disorders on Saudi Health-Related Quality of Life

Aim: This work aimed to study the influence of two chronic health conditions, metabolic syndrome (MetS) and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of Saudis. Method: The Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) health status questionnaire was used to measure the HRQoL and compare the mean scores of the questionnaire subscales and physical and mental component summaries (PCS and MCS) of 33 patients with MetS, 18 patients with MSDs, and 30 apparently healthy (AH) subjects. Regression analysis was used to measure the prediction power of the study group, age and gender of the participants in estimating the HRQoL. Results: Results showed that the mean scores of the physical subscales, the PCS, the mental subs-cales and MCS were arranged in descending order from AH subjects, patients with MetS, to pa-tients with MSDs. The mean scores difference among the 3 study groups were statistically signifi-cant with the only exception for the general mental health (GMH) subscale (P = 0.404). The study group and age accounted for 41.8 % of the variability of PCS while the study group accounted for 19.6 % of the variability in the MCS. The resulted equation to estimate the PCS score was as follows