The association between body mass index and fibromyalgia severity: data from a cross-sectional survey of 2339 patients

<p>The association between body mass index and fibromyalgia severity: data from a cross-sectional survey of 2339 patients</p> <p>Objective Various studies have shown that overweight and obesity are central features of FM, but<br> the real impact of a high BMI on clinical severity in patients with FM is still controversial. The aim of<br> this study was to analyse the relationships between BMI categories and measures of symptom severity<br> and functional impairment using data from a Web-based registry of patients with FM.<br> Methods Adult patients with an ACR 2010/2011 diagnosis of FM underwent a complete physical examination<br> and laboratory tests and were asked to complete a package of questionnaires covering their<br> sociodemographic and treatment details, in addition to the following disease-specific questionnaires:<br> the revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR), the modified Fibromyalgia Assessment Status<br> questionnaire (ModFAS) and the Polysymptomatic Distress Scale (PDS).<br> Results A total of 2339 patients were recruited and divided into two weight categories, underweight/<br> normal (U/N, n&frac14;1127, 48.2%) and overweight/obese (O/O, n&frac14;1212, 51.8%). The total and subscales&nbsp;significantly higher in the O/O patients, as were all the mean scores of the individual FIQR items<br> (P&lt;0.001 for all).<br> Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that O/O patients with FM are significantly more impaired than<br> U/N patients in all the symptomatological and functional domains as measured using the FIQR,<br> ModFAS and PDS, thus suggesting that being O/O has an additional effect on symptoms and<br> function.</p>