Measuring Health-Related Quality of Life Among Adults in Singapore: Population Norms for the EQ-5D.
Measuring health-related quality of life among adults in Singapore: population norms for the EQ-5D.
Qual Life Res. 2013 Apr 3;
Abdin E, Subramaniam M, Vaingankar JA, Luo N, Chong SA
PURPOSE: To provide population norms for the Euro-QoL-5D (EQ-5D) according to age, sex, ethnicity and language version using a representative sample of adults aged 18 years and above in the Singapore population. METHODS: A total of 5,594 respondents who completed the self-administrated paper-based EQ-5D in the Singapore Mental Health Study were included in this study. Socio-demographic characteristics were captured using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: The mean age of the sample was 40 years, females comprised 52.2 % of the sample and 78 % were of Chinese descent. Pain/discomfort was the most frequently reported problem (15.3 %) followed by anxiety/depression (8.2 %), whilst self-care (0.5 %) was the least frequently reported problem in the Singapore population. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that younger age, higher income, those employed and those administered English version of the questionnaire were significantly associated with higher EQ-5D index. CONCLUSIONS: This article provides important population norms for the EQ-5D for measuring health-related quality of life (HRQOL) both in clinical settings and in the research context. Our results suggest that socio-demographic factors should be taken into account when assessing HRQOL among adults in Singapore. HubMed – depression
The health-related quality-of-life impact of nocturnal awakenings in the middle-aged and older Finnish population.
Qual Life Res. 2013 Apr 3;
Väätäinen S, Tuomilehto H, Saramies J, Tuomilehto J, Uusitalo H, Hussi E, Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi S, Martikainen J
PURPOSE: The aim of the study is to examine the health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) impact of the nocturnal awakenings and the duration of the sleep in the Finnish middle-aged and older population. METHODS: Cross-sectional sample consisted of 823 community-dwelling persons aged 55-75 living in a single municipality in a rural area of Eastern Finland. Frequency of the nocturnal awakenings was dichotomized as reporting “frequent,” if the participant reported subjectively awakening “often” or “very often,” and “infrequent” if the participant reported awakening “sometimes” or less frequently. HRQOL was measured with a preference-based HRQOL-index instrument, 15D. Analyses were adjusted for gender, BMI, morbidities, depression, employment and marital status, current smoking and drinking, exercise, recommendation to exercise from a health care professional, and subjective opinion about own exercise habits. RESULTS: Frequent nocturnal awakenings had statistically and clinically significant negative impact on HRQOL, the mean (SE) adjusted marginal HRQOL impact being -0.0416 (0.006). More than 10 and less than 6.5 h of daily sleep were associated with higher probability of having low HRQOL, adjusted odd ratios (95 % CI) being 2.65 (1.11-6.33) and 2.65 (1.55-4.52), respectively. However, the changes in daily sleep duration did not have noticeable influence on the significance or magnitude of the negative HRQOL impact of the frequent nocturnal awakenings. CONCLUSIONS: Nocturnal awakenings displayed a strong independent association with decreased HRQOL. The findings suggest that both clinicians and researchers should pay closer attention to nocturnal awakenings and other sleep problems in order to find ways to improve the quality of life in individuals with such conditions. HubMed – depression
Prevalence and clinical factors of anxiety and depression in neurally mediated and unexplained syncope.
Yonsei Med J. 2013 May 1; 54(3): 583-9
Lee SH, Park SJ, Byeon K, On YK, Yim HR, Kim JS
Purpose: Several studies have demonstrated that psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression and panic attack are associated with syncope, especially vasovagal and unexplained syncope (US). The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of anxiety and depression between patients with neurally mediated syncope (NMS) and US and to investigate the clinical factors associated with anxiety and depression. Materials and Methods: Between January 2009 and March 2010, 383 patients with syncopal episodes completed a Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaire to assess symptoms of anxiety and depression. Inclusion criteria were NMS and US. Exclusion criteria were cardiac syncope, orthostatic hypotension and other disorders mimicking syncope. After exclusion, 199 patients were included. Results: There were 176 (88.4%) NMS patients and 23 (11.6%) US patients. The prevalence of abnormal anxiety and depression were not significantly different between the NMS and US groups (10.2% vs. 8.7%, p=0.99; 8.5% vs. 17.4%, p=0.24). Clinical factors associated with anxiety were female gender (p=0.01) and six or more recurrent syncopal episodes (p=0.01) by univariate analysis. The only factor associated with abnormal anxiety score (OR=20.26, 95% CI: 1.4-291.6, p=0.01) was more than six recurrent syncopal episodes, while a positive head-up tilt table testing response was inversely associated with abnormal depression score (OR=0.28, CI: 0.08-0.97, p=0.04) in the multiple logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: Anxiety was associated with frequent syncopal episodes. Thus, anxiety might be considered in the management of syncope patients. HubMed – depression
Depression in children and adolescents with epilepsy: a 15 year research review of prevalence, and demographic and seizure related correlates.
Iran J Pediatr. 2013 Feb; 23(1): 1-7
Maryam S, Parviz B
The paper aims to study the prevalence of depression in epileptic children and adolescents by reviewing the existing literature, looking for any association between depression in these children and their demographic or seizure related factors to highlight the potential risk factors for depression in epileptic children.A search of MEDLINE, NLM Gateway, Ovid and EMBASE was carried out to study original English language articles published during the last 15 years, focusing on only epileptic children and adolescents, studying of depression as comorbidity of epilepsy, and describing demographic and epilepsy-related factors associated with depression.The 11 articles included in this study have reported data on 1095 epileptic children aged 4-19 years old and showed that the prevalence of depression has continued to be very common in epileptic children and adolescents, ranged from 5.2% to 39.6%. On the whole, the findings did not support the presence of an association between depression and demographic or seizure variables in children.Pediatricians and other physicians working with epileptic children should have a high index of suspicion for depression as a comorbid condition in children with epilepsy. Early diagnosis and more comprehensive packages of care for depression in epileptic children will enable them to have a better quality of life. HubMed – depression
Does Inflammation Cause Depression? – An article in Life Extension in September of 2012 suggested the anti-inflammatory drugs might be the answer to managing depression. This idiotic suggestion s…