There is improved quality of life with successful healthy lifestyle programs

There has been an epidemic of obesity and associated illnesses such as high blood pressure and diabetes which is generally associated with poor nutrition and unhealthy lifestyles. The University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences reports an overlooked benefit of healthy lifestyle programs has been a generally improved health associated quality of life. Researchers have found participating in a community-based behavioral lifestyle intervention program aimed at improving health not only helped people increase their levels of physical activity, lose weight, and lower their risk of diabetes and heart disease, but this also improved their health associated quality of life by an average of about 10 percent. This research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health. Senior author Andrea Kriska, Ph.D., professor in Pitt Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology and primary investigator of the NIH study, says it has been exciting to be able to document there was an improved health associated quality of life along with improvement in risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease seen in participants in the Group Lifestyle Balance program. This study has been published in the journal Quality of Life Research. The findings of improvement of health related quality of life in participants in a community lifestyle intervention program along with better clinical and behavioral outcomes, should enhance the appeal of such programs for overall improvement of health.