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Asthma symptoms associated with depression and lower quality of life: a population survey
Robert D Goldney1, Richard Ruffin, Laura J Fisher
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide, SA. robert.goldney@adelaide.edu.au
Objective:
To identify any association between asthma and depression and quality of life.
Design And Setting:
A face-to-face Health Omnibus Survey of a random and representative sample of the South Australian population in August 1998.
Participants:
3010 randomly selected participants aged 15 years and over.
Main Outcome Measures:
Prevalence of doctor-diagnosed asthma, and scores for depression (measured by PRIME-MD instrument) and quality of life (measured by SF-36) in affected participants.
Results:
The prevalence of asthma was 9.9%. The prevalence of major depression was significantly higher for those who experienced dyspnoea, wakening at night with asthma, and morning symptoms of asthma. Quality-of-life scores were also lower for the same groups.
Conclusions:
Depression is a serious but potentially remediable comorbidity with asthma that may affect appropriate diagnosis and outcome.