Depression and its impact on health-related quality of life among Chinese inpatients with lung cancer

// Wen Gu 1 , Yan-Min Xu 2 , Jun-Hong Zhu 2 and Bao-Liang Zhong 2 1 Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Psychological Healthcare, Shenzhen Institute of Mental Health, Shenzhen Kangning Hospital, Shenzhen Mental Health Center, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China 2 Affiliated Wuhan Mental Health Center, The Ninth Clinical School, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China Correspondence to: Bao-Liang Zhong, email: haizhilan@gmail.com Keywords: depression, lung cancer, quality of life, epidemiology Received: August 01, 2017      Accepted: August 29, 2017      Published: September 18, 2017 ABSTRACT Depression is of great concern for patients with cancer. A detailed epidemiological profile of depression in Chinese patients with lung cancer and whether depression impacts patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQOL) remain unknown. This study examined the prevalence and socio-demographic and clinical correlates of depression and its effect on HRQOL in Chinese inpatients with lung cancer of two large general hospitals. A total of 148 inpatients were consecutively recruited, and administered with a standardized questionnaire to collect socio-demographic and clinical data. Depression and HRQOL were assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and World Health Organization QOL Scale Brief Version, respectively. As high as 43.2% Chinese inpatients with lung cancer had clinically significant depressive symptoms. Multiple logistic regression found that depression was significantly associated with moderate-to-severe pain (OR: 4.43), metastatic cancer (OR: 3.63), a short duration after cancer diagnosis (OR: 1.04), poor performance status (OR: 3.41), and small-cell cancer (OR: 4.52). Depressed patients had significantly poorer HRQOL than not depressed patients in terms of all four domains of HRQOL. After controlling for the potential confounding effects of socio-demographic and clinical factors with analysis of covariance, these group-differences in physical (F = 29.074, P < 0.001), psychological (F = 76.869, P < 0.001), social (F = 21.465, P < 0.001), and environmental (F = 27.685, P < 0.001) HRQOL remained statistically significant. Depression is prevalent in inpatients with lung cancer and independently associated with poor HRQOL. To address this serious issue, effective pain management, psycho-oncology services and, when necessary, psychiatric assessment and treatment, should be routinely provided in oncology departments of Chinese general hospitals.