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The association between somatic and psychological discomfort and health-related quality of life according to the elderly and non-elderly

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Abstract

Purpose

Symptoms and discomfort are common complaints in primary care settings. It has been postulated that the physical symptoms are informative index in estimating Health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Thus, we conducted a community-based cross-sectional study to assess the relationship between somatic and psychological discomfort and HRQOL in elderly and non-elderly people.

Methods

A total of 2467 participants were recruited in 2013 from a population of 17,066 rural residents aged 20 or older. Information on demographic characteristics, somatic and psychological discomfort symptoms, and HRQOL was collected. Two months after the baseline survey, we conducted a repeated survey to assess changes in the discomfort symptoms and HRQOL. We evaluated associations of the discomfort symptoms with HRQOL using multiple linear regression and mixed model.

Results

EuroQol-Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS), index of HRQOL, was correlated with fatigue, pain, sleep disturbances, indigestion, and anxiety/depression, after adjusting for covariates. However, the factors most significantly associated with EQ-VAS differed between the elderly and non-elderly. Pain was the most important factor contributing to EQ-VAS in the elderly, whereas depression and anxiety were the predominant factors in the non-elderly. These relationships were replicated in the repeated measurements to assess the change of symptoms and change of EQ-VAS.

Conclusion

Our study suggests that somatic and psychological discomfort symptoms are associated with HRQOL. The main factors related to HRQOL vary according to age and large prospective studies and clinical trials are needed to clarify the association between specific symptoms and HRQOL according to the age.

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Abbreviations

CI:

Confidence interval

EQ-VAS:

EuroQol-visual analogue scale

GERD:

Gastroesophageal reflux disease

HRQOL:

Health-related quality of life

MDD:

Major depression disorder

NPP:

Nuclear power plant

OR:

Odds ratio

SAD:

Social anxiety disorder

SD:

Standard deviation

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Funding

This work was supported by the Korea Radioactive Waste Agency, the Education and Research, Encouragement Fund of Seoul National University, and the Bio & Medical Technology Development, Program of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning through the National Research Foundation (NRF-2015M3A9D7056470). The funding agency has no role in the design, analysis, and reporting of the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine, Gachon University, 191 Hambakmoeiro, Yeonsu-Gu, Incheon, South Korea

    Hyeon-Sook Lee, Ji-Hye Youn & Kwang-Pil Ko

  2. Mibyeong Research Center, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea

    Siwoo Lee & Younghwa Baek

  3. Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

    Sohee Park

  4. Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 103 Daehangno, Chongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

    Dan Bee Cho, Jung-Hyun Jin, Aesun Shin, Sue K. Park & Keun-Young Yoo

  5. Seoul National University Cancer Research Institute, 103 Daehangno, Chongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

    Sue K. Park

  6. Department of Biomedical Science, Seoul National University Graduate School, 103 Daehangno, Chongno-gu, Incheon, South Korea

    Sue K. Park

  7. Department of Nuclear Medicine & Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Keon Wook Kang

  8. Department of Radiology, Gachon University, 191 Hambakmoeiro Yeonsu-Gu, Incheon, South Korea

    Young-Khi Lim

  9. Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Bundang-Gu Gumi-ro, Seongnam, South Korea

    Chul Hwan Kang

  10. Korean Armed Forces Capital Hospital, Yul-dong, Seongnam, South Korea

    Keun-Young Yoo

Authors
  1. Hyeon-Sook Lee
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  2. Siwoo Lee
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  9. Sue K. Park
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  14. Kwang-Pil Ko
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kwang-Pil Ko.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Lee, HS., Lee, S., Park, S. et al. The association between somatic and psychological discomfort and health-related quality of life according to the elderly and non-elderly. Qual Life Res 27, 673–681 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-017-1715-1

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