OBJECTIVES: The study assessed whether, beyond general risks from obesity-related comorbidities, specific comorbidity types were associated differentially with impairments to health-related quality of life and work productivity.  METHODS: Data were from the European 2008 National Health and Wellness Survey of German, Spanish, Italian, UK, and French adults.  Logistic regressions identified significant predictors of presence vs. absence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30) among 62 medical conditions, for 52,206 respondents with valid BMI data (of 53,524 total).  Significant predictors were then submitted to a principal component analysis (PCA) to identify obesity-related components accounting for the most variance.  Conditions loading most highly on the resulting components were used to predict the following outcomes for all 10,391 obese respondents, using multiple regressions: physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) component summary scores from the SF-12v2 quality of life instrument, health utilities (SF-6D), and percentage overall work impairment (WPAI).  Comparisons were against obese respondents with none of the PCA-identified conditions, controlling for the other conditions.  RESULTS: Logistic regressions identified 35 obesity predictors that reduced to 9 PCA components with one condition loading prominently on each: hypertension, high cholesterol, arthritis, angina, thyroid condition, diabetes, chronic bronchitis, psoriasis, and urinary incontinence.  All conditions except psoriasis predicted PCS reductions ranging from 1.22 (with presence of angina) to 9.02 (arthritis), ps<0.001.  All except diabetes and angina, and arthritis and hypertension (associated with MCS increases), predicted MCS reductions ranging from 0.70 (cholesterol) to 4.11 (incontinence), ps<0.05.  All except angina predicted health utilities reductions ranging from 0.011 (hypertension) to 0.077 (incontinence), ps<0.001.  Among 5,242 employed respondents, all except angina and psoriasis predicted overall work impairments of 2.11% (hypertension) to 12.48% (bronchitis), ps<0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Obese EU respondents differed significantly in quality of life and productivity impairments, based on both presence and specific types of comorbidities.  These findings can help guide interventions among obesity-related conditions.