Anxiety Disorders Center, The Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT, USA.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2012 Aug;27(8):828-35. doi: 10.1002/gps.2791. Epub 2011 Sep 29.
The aim of this study was to determine the independent contributions of depressive and anxiety symptoms to quality of life among older adults who were receiving services through a home care program.
The study sample consisted of 66 community-dwelling older adults (ages 65 years and older), who were experiencing chronic medical illness and concomitant functional disability necessitating home care. Participants completed self-report measures of depression, anxiety, and health-related quality of life. Additional data on cognitive, health, and functional status were collected to be used as covariates.
The associations of depressive symptoms with quality of life impairments in home care were substantial and pervasive. Depressive symptoms were significantly associated with quality of life impairments in nearly all domains. After controlling for depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms accounted for additional and statistically significant variance in impaired life quality in the domains of mental health, role emotional functioning, and bodily pain.
These results indicate that depressive and anxiety symptoms demonstrate negative associations with life quality among older adults in home care and highlight the importance of developing community-based programs to assess and treat depressive and anxiety symptoms among home care clients.
本研究旨在确定抑郁和焦虑症状对接受家庭护理计划服务的老年人生活质量的独立影响。
研究样本包括 66 名居住在社区中的老年人（年龄在 65 岁及以上），他们患有慢性疾病且伴有功能障碍，需要家庭护理。参与者完成了抑郁、焦虑和与健康相关的生活质量的自我报告评估。还收集了有关认知、健康和功能状态的额外数据，用作协变量。
抑郁症状与家庭护理中生活质量受损的关联是显著且普遍的。抑郁症状与生活质量受损的几乎所有领域都显著相关。在控制了抑郁症状后，焦虑症状在心理健康、情感角色功能和躯体疼痛等领域的生活质量受损方面，还额外解释了并具有统计学意义的差异。
这些结果表明，抑郁和焦虑症状与家庭护理中的老年人生活质量呈负相关，强调了开发基于社区的项目来评估和治疗家庭护理客户的抑郁和焦虑症状的重要性。
