Abstract

SOUSA, Luiz Vinicius de Alcantara et al. Quality of Life and Metabolic Syndrome in Brazilian quilombola communities: A Cross-sectional Study. J. Hum. Growth Dev. [online]. 2018, vol.28, n.3, pp. 316-328. ISSN 0104-1282.  http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.152182.

INTRODUCTION: The lifestyle of quilombola communities has changed due to extra community influence, thus affecting their environmental and behavioral factors related to the Metabolic Syndrome (MS). However, little is known about the influence of MS on the Quality of Life (QoL) of quilombola residents. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to study the association between MS and QoL in quilombola communities in northern Tocantins, Brazil. METHODS: The QoL of 147 adults from five quilombola communities from Tocantins was assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF instrument. Blood pressure, abdominal perimeter, fasting blood glucose, triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol were measured, and the presence of MS was defined as the alteration of at least three of these clinical aspects. The association of the clinical components and the SM presence with the Quality of Life was evaluated by Student's t-test for independent samples. RESULTS: We observed that in the total population, an altered abdominal perimeter had an inverse association with both the Physical (15.2 vs. 14.0, p=0.002) and General QoL domains (14.4 vs. 14.0, p=0.045), and MS was inversely associated with the Physical domain (14.9 vs. 14.0, p=0.030). When stratified by sex, the altered abdominal perimeters in men were inversely associated with the Physical (16.5 vs. 14.4, p<0.001), Environmental (14.0 vs. 12.6, p=0.020) and General domains (15.5 vs. 14.0, p<0.001). MS had an inverse association with the Physical (15.8 vs. 14.4, p=0.026) and General domains (14.8 vs. 14.0 p= 0.042) in men. In women there was no association between any risk factor studied and QoL domain. CONCLUSIONS: The status of MS was negatively associated with the quality of life of the male population, highlighting the abdominal perimeter, which influences the Physical and General domains of QoL, but in the female population the MS does not interfere in the perception of QoL. Understanding the relationship between chronic diseases and QoL in quilombola communities is necessary to reduce health inequalities in historically vulnerable communities.

Keywords : Quilombolas; quality of life; metabolic syndrome; WHOQOL-BREF.

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