title: Health-related quality of life and depression in an Italian sample of multiple sclerosis patients.
abstract: Only few publications have been reported on Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). EDSS is the most common outcome measure for either impairment or disability of MS, but it is not able to catch other aspects of MS impact on HRQoL. The authors performed a cross-sectional study on the group of all patients with MS who were diagnosed at least 4 years before 1998 in Catania (South Italy). One hundred and eighty patients out of 308 were enrolled in the study. SF-36 was used to catch the HRQoL of MS patients. EDSS, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and time since diagnosis were investigated as variables affecting the HRQoL of MS patients. The patients showed significant lower mean scores for all SF-36 health dimensions compared with sex- and age-adjusted scores in a general healthy Italian population (p<0.001). EDSS scores correlated only with physical functioning (r=-0.76 p<0.001). As expected, the more severe was the disease, the longer its duration and the lower the patients' skillness on HRQoL. BDI showed high partial correlations with all SF-36 health domains with r=-0.38 to -0.65 (p<0.001). This study showed that SF-36 is able to assess the HRQoL of MS patients. Depression strongly influenced the HRQoL of MS patients. EDSS and time since diagnosis also affected the HRQoL of MS patients. Our results are comparable with other European studies.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Neuroscienze, Sezione Sclerosi Multipla e Malattie Demielinizzanti, Azienda Policlinico Via Santa Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy. patti@mbox.unict.it
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Patti
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cacopardo
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palermo
authors.forename: Maria Rita
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Ciancio
authors.forename: Rossella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Restivo
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reggio
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires