Quality of Life in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis: Association with Anxiety and Depression

Background: Few studies of patients with CF have looked at the association between patient reported Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and anxiety and depression. This study investigated whether CF patients with symptoms of anxiety or depression reported lower Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) scores.

Methods: 57 adult CF patients completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Cystic Fibrosis Questionnaire, a CF-specific measure of HRQoL. Analyses of variance with lung function as a covariate were used to investigate differences in HRQoL between groups of patients with and without symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Results: Mean age was 26.7 years (SD 8.1), mean FEV1 %predicted was 65.09 (SD 22.18). Anxiety and depression scores were low and similar to normative scores. After controlling for lung function, patients with symptoms of anxiety reported lower on vitality, emotional functioning, social, treatment burden, health perceptions and respiratory symptoms. Those with depressive symptoms reported lower HRQoL scores for emotional functioning, eating disturbances and body image.

Conclusions: Preliminary evidence was found of the role of anxiety and depression in different areas of quality of life in CF, which may help in the development of appropriate medical and psychosocial treatment programs.