title: Quality of life in pathological gamblers in a multiethnic Asian setting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Few studies have examined the impact of pathological gambling on quality of life especially in the Asian context. The aim of the current study was to examine the quality of life in pathological gamblers in a multiracial population in Singapore and we hypothesised that those with pathological gambling would have poorer quality of life as compared to controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty subjects with "compulsive gambling behaviour" were recruited and matched (for gender and age) with 40 controls. Subjects with pathological gambling were compared with control subjects with regard to sociodemographic data as well as on the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment - abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A one-way MANOVA revealed that pathological gamblers had significantly diminished quality of life as compared with the healthy controls using the summary scores of the 4 domains of quality of life (Pillai's Trace = 0.338, F = 9.5, P <0.001). Univariate tests indicated subjects with pathological gambling scored significantly lower on physical health, psychological, social relationships and environment domains of quality of life compared with subjects without pathological gambling.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study found that those with pathological gambling had lower scores than the controls in all the domains of the quality of life scale. The impact and the extent of pathological gambling on the quality of life should be borne in mind -- not only as a consideration in the management but also as an important indicator of treatment outcome of pathological gamblers.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, Buangkok Green Medical Park, Singapore. mythily@imh.com.sg
authors.forename: Subramaniam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mythily
authors.forename: Abdin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Edimansyah
authors.forename: Shijia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Winslow
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Munidasa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012846:Singapore / Q000208:ethnology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult