The association of quality of life and personality characteristics with adolescent metabolic syndrome: a cohort study

BACKGROUND: An increased prevalence of adolescent metabolic syndrome (MS) is associated with adulthood cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to explore the potential relationship of quality of life (QoL) and personality traits with adolescent MS. METHODS: A total of 1961 participants from Chongqing with an average age of 11.68 years old from a cohort study established in 2014 and followed up through 2019 were included. QoL information, Eysenck’s personality questionnaire and MS components were collected. RESULTS: A higher QoL domain score of physical activity ability (PAA) was a protective factor for both MS and MS score (all P < 0.01), which was mainly negatively correlated with the MS components of central obesity, diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and triglyceride levels, as well as positively correlated with high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level. The total QoL score was negatively correlated with triglyceride levels and positively correlated with DBP (all P < 0.01). High extraversion personality score was a protective factor against adolescent MS (P = 0.04) and MS score (P < 0.05), which were mainly negatively correlated with the MS components of waist circumference, systolic blood pressure and TGs, and positively correlated with HDL-C (all P ≤ 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: QoL score and extraversion personality score were independent protective factors against both MS prevalence and MS score, suggesting that community intervention to improve the QoL and psychological health of children are essential. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12955-021-01797-7.