Quality of life of Chinese schizophrenia outpatients in Hong Kong: relationship to sociodemographic factors and symptomatology.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the relationships between sociodemographic and clinical factors and quality of life (QOL) in a cohort of Chinese schizophrenia outpatients.


METHODS
Two hundred subjects with a diagnosis of DSM-IV schizophrenia aged 18-60 years were randomly selected, and their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics including psychotic and depressive symptoms, extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), and quality of life were assessed. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationships of sociodemographic, clinical data and QOL.


RESULTS
Compared to normative data obtained for the general population in Hong Kong, significantly lower scores in physical, psychological, and social QOL domains were found in the patient group. History of suicidal attempts and the presence of positive, negative, depressive, anxiety and EPS symptoms were all significantly correlated with QOL in schizophrenia patients. After controlling for the effects of variables that were significantly correlated with QOL in the correlation analysis, however, only depressive symptoms were still significantly correlated with each QOL domain. Multiple regression analysis showed that depressive symptoms predicted all QOL domains, while positive symptoms predicted overall and physical QOL domains.


CONCLUSIONS
Chinese outpatients with schizophrenia had poorer QOL than the general population. In this patient population, QOL was more strongly related to the severity of depressive symptoms and was independent of sociodemographic factors.
Xiang
Yu-Tao
YT
Department of Psychiatry, Shatin Hospital, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong. xyutly@cuhk.edu.hk
Weng
Yong-Zhen
YZ
Leung
Chi-Ming
CM
Tang
Wai-Kwong
WK
Ungvari
Gabor S
GS
D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D010054:Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; D003415:Crime / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014754:Violence / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents