Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Behav Genet. 2021 Jul;51(4):394-404. doi: 10.1007/s10519-021-10051-1. Epub 2021 Feb 18.
Anxiety not only concerns mental wellbeing but also negatively impacts other areas of health. Yet, there is limited research on (a) the genetic and environmental aetiology of such relationships; (b) sex differences in aetiology and (c) non-European samples. In this study, we investigated the genetic and environmental variation and covariation of anxiety symptoms and eight components of health-related quality of life (QoL), as measured by the short form health survey (SF-36), using genetic twin model fitting analysis. Data was drawn from the Colombo Twin and Singleton Study (COTASS), a population-based sample in Sri Lanka with data on twins (N = 2921) and singletons (N = 1027). Individual differences in anxiety and QoL traits showed more shared environmental (family) effects in women. Men did not show familial effects. Anxiety negatively correlated with all eight components of QoL, mostly driven by overlapping unique (individual-specific) environmental effects in both sexes and overlapping shared environmental effects in women. This is the first study in a South Asian population supporting the association between poor mental health and reduced QoL, highlighting the value of integrated healthcare services. Associations were largely environmental, on both individual and family levels, which could be informative for therapy and intervention.
焦虑不仅关乎心理健康，还会对其他健康领域产生负面影响。然而，关于（a）这种关系的遗传和环境病因；（b）病因学中的性别差异；以及（c）非欧洲样本的研究还很有限。在这项研究中，我们使用遗传双胞胎模型拟合分析，调查了焦虑症状和健康相关生活质量（QoL）的八个组成部分（SF-36 短表）的遗传和环境变异及共变。数据来自科伦坡双胞胎和单胞胎研究（COTASS），这是斯里兰卡的一项基于人群的样本，其中包括双胞胎（N=2921）和单胞胎（N=1027）的数据。焦虑和 QoL 特征的个体差异在女性中表现出更多的共享环境（家庭）效应。男性没有表现出家庭效应。焦虑与 QoL 的所有八个组成部分均呈负相关，这主要归因于两性中重叠的独特（个体特定）环境效应以及女性中重叠的共享环境效应。这是南亚人群中第一项支持心理健康状况不佳与 QoL 降低之间存在关联的研究，突出了综合医疗保健服务的重要性。这些关联主要是个体和家庭层面的环境因素，这对治疗和干预具有重要意义。
