Impact of anxiety-depressive symptoms on outpatients’ quality of life: Preliminary results from an Italian observational study

Introduction Several studies have shown an association between
the Short-Form 36 (SF36) scores and anxiety-depressive symptoms,
suggesting that depression in particular could reduce Quality of
Life (QoL) to the same, and even greater, extent than chronic noncommunicable
diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension.
Aims To explore the relationshipamongQoL and anxiety, depressive
and anxiety-depressive symptoms in an outpatient sample.
Methods Cross-sectional study. Inclusion criteria: outpatients
aged ≥40 years, without history for cancer, attending colonoscopy
after positive faecal occult blood test. Collected data: blood
pressure, blood glucose, lipid profile. Psychometric test: Hospital
Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). QoL was assessed with SF36.
Statistics performed with STATA13.
Results 54 patients enrolled (27 females). Sixteen patients
(30.2%) were positive for anxiety symptoms, ten (18.9%) for depressive
symptoms and five (9.4%) for anxiety-depressive symptoms.
The perceived QoL was precarious in twelve subjects (22.2%): eight
(15.9%) had low score (≤ 42) at “Mental Component Summary”
(MCS) subscale, three (5.7%) at the “Mental Health” item and one
patient (1.9%) at the “Vitality” one. At the multiple regression
analysis, depressive (OR = 28.63; P = 0.01) and anxiety-depressive
symptoms (OR = 11.16; P = 0.02) were associated with MCS.
Conclusions The association emerging from the present study
between depressive/anxiety symptoms and the MCS component of
SF36 is consistent with available literature. Study design and small
sample size do not allow to generalize results, that need further
studies to be confirmed.