Key takeaways:

• For people with FH, overeating was more frequent on weekends and driven by boredom.
• Treating patients with FH requires a multidisciplinary approach, like perhaps quality of life questionnaires at appointments.

For patients with familial hypercholesterolemia, overeating was connected to a lower quality of life, underscoring the need for a multidisciplinary approach when it comes to treating patients in this population, according to researchers.

Considering that factors like family history, ethnicity and diet can all contribute to blood cholesterol levels, researchers have looked to unhealthy diets as a modifiable risk factor for hypercholesterolemia, Alexandra Mastaleru, an assistant professor at the Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Romania, and colleagues wrote in Nutrients.

“Adopting a balanced diet low in saturated fats is a crucial measure individuals can take to decrease their chances of developing high blood cholesterol,” they said. The same approach can be used to address familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) — a genetic disease characterized by high levels of low-density lipoproteins.

However, when a patient’s eating habits become potential catalysts for “the development or exacerbation of metabolic pathologies, an increased interest is placed on overeating, its causes, and its effects,” the researchers added.

Mastaleru and colleagues conducted a small prospective study of 20 control patients and 70 patients with FH at a cardiovascular rehabilitation clinic. They assessed lipid profiles, eating habits and quality of life, using a food frequency questionnaire to evaluate eating habits and the Short Form—36 Questionnaire to measure quality of life.

Mastaleru and colleagues found that, for patients with FH, overeating was linked to a lower quality of life. Additionally, overeating was more frequent on weekends in the FH group. For everyone, it was driven by boredom.

Among the patients with FH who skipped their next meal after overeating, the researchers observed that most scores were lower, “emphasizing the emotional component of this habit.”

“Food and, implicitly, overeating bring with it, momentarily, a feeling of well-being,” they wrote. “Awareness of the risk causes patients to skip the next meal, but over time, repeating this process can generate a feeling of frustration, the appearance of metabolic syndrome, and a decrease in quality of life.”

These results, the researchers concluded, highlight the need for a multidisciplinary approach when it comes to treating “the complexity of these patients.”

“Thus, the quality-of-life questionnaire should be implemented in their periodical follow-ups in order to increase their general status, with special attention paid to geriatric patients,” Mastaleru and colleagues wrote.