Trajectory of Anxiety, Depression and Quality of Life in Ankylosing Spondylitis: A Descriptive Study

To investigate anxiety, depression, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) over 15 years and associations between demographic, disease-related variables, anxiety and depression, and HRQoL in patients with AS.

Descriptive study. Place and Duration of the Study: Istanbul Medeniyet University Goztepe Prof. Dr. Suleymsan Yalcin City Hospital, from June to December 2021.

Seventy-five patients with AS, who were followed up in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation outpatient clinic for 15 years, were included in this study, after their diagnosis was confirmed by the hospital system. The demographic information (gender, age, accommodation status, educational status, employment status, and time unemployed), diagnosis time, remission time, drugs used, usage of TNF-inhibitor drugs and duration of usage were recorded. Bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index (BASDAI) was used to the measure the disease activity, the hospital anxiety depression scale (HADS) was used for anxiety and depression screening and Short Form-36 (SF-36) was used for HRQoL.

SF-36 physical component summary score, general health, social functioning, and role limitations due to physical health subscale scores improved significantly (p=0.004; p<0.000; p=0.024; p=0.002, respectively). It was observed that the effects of BASDAI, HADS anxiety and depression scores were significant on SF-36 (p=0.044; p=0.050; p=0.023), and time has a substantial impact on SF-36 (p=0.003). The effects of gender, education level, and occupation were not found statistically significant (p>0.05 for each).

Within 15 years, quality of life increased, anxiety and depression decreased in AS patients. Along with disease activity, anxiety and depression were found to be the most important factors affecting the change in quality of life over time.

Ankylosing spondylitis, Anxiety, Depression, Disease activity, Quality of life.