Introduction Health-related quality of life (QoL) is largely affected by cardiovascular disease, but it not known the effect of accumulated risk factors.

Objective To evaluate the association between cardiovascular risk factors and health-related QoL in a population-based sampling from southern Brazil.

Methods This population-based cross-sectional study included 1858 adults, aged 18–90 years. Standardised interviews and measurements detected obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m²); alcoholic beverage consumption (grams of ethanol/day); smoking, and physical inactivity (<150 min/day). Hypertension was identified by blood pressure ≥140/90 mm Hg or lowering drugs. QoL was detected by Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) for Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS). General Linear Model, of the SPSS-Complex Samples module, was used for multivariate analysis, controlling for design effect and confounding factors.

Results Participants had 48.9±19.1 years-old, 9.4±4.7 years at school, and 58% were women. Low PCS scores were determined for low education level, females, age ≥65 year, but only the last two risk factors were associated with low MCS score. Lower PCS were detected for obesity (46.9 vs 49.5; p<0.001), hypertension (47.6 vs 49.9; p<0.001), diabetes (45.6 vs 49.2; p<0.001), and physically inactive (46.7 vs 49.7; p<0.001), independently of confounding factors, as well as for MCS for non-smoking participants (49.4) (vs 51.9 ex-smokers and 51.2 smokers; p=0.003), physically inactive (49.9 vs 51.4; p=0.008), hypertensive (49.9 vs 51.9; p=0.007), and diabetics (48.6 vs 51.2; p=0.008). There was a curve-response between the number of risk factors and PCS (p<0.001) and MCS scores (p<0.001).

Conclusion Individuals who accumulated risk factors have poorer health-related QoL.