Several studies have shown an association between the Short-Form 36 (SF36) scores and anxiety-depressive symptoms, suggesting that depression in particular could reduce Quality of Life (QoL) to the same, and even greater, extent than chronic non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension.

To explore the relationship among QoL and anxiety, depressive and anxiety-depressive symptoms in an outpatient sample.

Cross-sectional study. Inclusion criteria: outpatients aged ≥40 years, without history for cancer, attending colonoscopy after positive faecal occult blood test. Collected data: blood pressure, blood glucose, lipid profile. Psychometric test: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). QoL was assessed with SF36. Statistics performed with STATA13.

54 patients enrolled (27 females). Sixteen patients (30.2%) were positive for anxiety symptoms, ten (18.9%) for depressive symptoms and five (9.4%) for anxiety-depressive symptoms. The perceived QoL was precarious in twelve subjects (22.2%): eight (15.9%) had low score (≤ 42) at “Mental Component Summary” (MCS) subscale, three (5.7%) at the “Mental Health” item and one patient (1.9%) at the “Vitality” one. At the multiple regression analysis, depressive (OR = 28.63; P = 0.01) and anxiety-depressive symptoms (OR = 11.16; P = 0.02) were associated with MCS.

The association emerging from the present study between depressive/anxiety symptoms and the MCS component of SF36 is consistent with available literature. Study design and small sample size do not allow to generalize results, that need further studies to be confirmed.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.