[Chronic disease and quality of life]

Chronic diseases could produce functional limitations in different domains as well as depression and anxiety. Health related quality of life (HRQL) measures could help to identify functional problems not detected by clinical evaluations. Those measures could also help to better understand different group conditions and situations. Main objectives of this paper are: to study the presence of depressive and anxiety status in out patients with chronic diseases and to investigate its association with a better or worse HRQL in different domains.

This is a prevalence design study. Patients were recruited from an university Hospital. Consecutive samples were collected from three medical specialties: Chronic pain, Parkinson's disease and Mental Health. Social and demographic data were collected. The SF 36 was administered for the HRQL evaluation and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HADS) for screening anxiety and depression states. Descriptive statistics and the chi square test were used for data analysis.

630 out patients were included. 25% of patients with chronic pain, 15% of patients with Parkinson disease and 31% with a mental health condition were classified with a probably depression. In the three groups of patients depression was found to be associated with physical function and emotional role, from the SF 36's dimensions. In the mental health and in Parkinson's disease out patients'groups, anxiety was associated to the majority of SF 36's dimensions.

Results showed the complexity of the health phenomena and the relevance that HRQL measures and population norms have for comparing different health profiles for giving support either to clinicians or to health services practices.