title: Quality of life and mental health in Chinese culture.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Quality of life (QOL) has become a standard outcome measure in psychiatry. The QOL concept is culture-dependent, which means that the results of Western studies may not be applicable to Chinese patients. The aim of this study is to summarize the recent literature on QOL and mental health in Chinese culture.
  
  
  RESULTS
  QOL has increasingly been used as an outcome measure of pharmacotherapeutic or psychosocial interventions in Chinese societies. Recent studies have suggested that socio-cultural factors exert an influence on the QOL of Chinese psychiatric patients. Patients with major psychiatric disorders have a poorer QOL than the general population. Socio-demographic characteristics have no, or only weak, associations with QOL in schizophrenia, whereas novel antipsychotics and antidepressants improve QOL relative to traditional psychotropic medications in the short term.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The inclusion of QOL measures in routine clinical practice and research in Chinese societies should be encouraged, and culture-sensitive QOL measures should be developed. Chinese psychiatry should also implement appropriate strategies and effective measures in line with the findings on the relationship between QOL and socio-demographic and clinical factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. xyutly@cuhk.edu.hk
authors.forename: Yu-Tao
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Helen F K
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: Gabor S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Ungvari
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D002681:China; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008603:Mental Health; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*