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.