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Age related health and quality of life differences in general and psychiatric outpatient populations
Goštautaitė-Midttun, Nijolė | „Psichikos sveikatos iniciatyva“ | LT | ||
LT | Union of Lithuanian Health Psychologists | LT | ||
Žekas, Romualdas | „Psichikos sveikatos iniciatyva“ | LT | ||
Kudzinskienė, Dainora | Neuronas, Lietuva | LT |
Date Issued |
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2018 |
Background: Success of health promotion, treatment and rehabilitation interventions is measured not only by symptom indicators, but also by improvements in self-rated health (SRH) and of quality of life (QoL). Both SRH and QoL have significant relationship with age. Present analysis aims to reveal QoL and SRH age related trends among general population and psychiatric outpatients with depression and schizophrenia. Methods: This is a new analysis of data was collected within an ongoing Quality of Life Project carried out in WHO Health Promoting Kaunas Region (Lithuania), in cooperation with social partners. Pooled WHO QoL-100 and SRH items data from general population (N5454) and psychiatric outpatients (N748) were compared within 10-year age groups. Contingency tables and χ2 were used for statistical analysis. Findings: Outpatients scored lower than general population in all QoL and SRH domains. Overall 51 % of population and 13 % of outpatients evaluated themselves as ―healthy‖, while their number in both groups decreased with age. Among general population ―healthy‖ respondents decreased from 81.3% to 10.6 % respectively from age 20 to 70, while among psychiatric outpatients from 39.6 % to 5 %. Discussion Consistent age-related reduction of SRH and QoL is observed in mentally ill outpatients. Mental health services when pursuing outcomes should consider not only SRH and QoL gap between patients and general population, but also age trends. Population indicators could provide realistic targets for recovery.