Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Obesity is a complex physical disorder caused by different biological, psychological, and social factors. Identification of the psychological factors and consequences of obesity is one of the main elements of its control and treatment. The present study was carried out to compare depression and quality of life in the obese women with different body mass indices (BMIs) with the normal women.

Methods: for each three groups of obesity 40 and in total 120 women were selected of all the visitors of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences using convenience sampling method and based on the BMI table in a causal-comparative design. Forty women were the normal women sample. Instruments of the study were composed of a questionnaire of personal information, Beck Depression Inventory (second version), and Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire (SF-36). The data were analyzed using Multi-Variable Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Bonferroni Post hoc test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient as well as the SPSS software.

Results: the results suggested a significant difference between the obese women in different levels of BMI and the normal ones concerning depression and quality of life at p<0.001. In addition, it was revealed that there is a significant negative difference among the obese women in different levels of BMI concerning depression and quality of life at p<0.001.