Severity of depression: Analysis of some SF 36 scales and self rating depression: Zung scale

Introduction: According to the present literature, depression in subjects with any disorder influences the estimation of personal quality of life (QOL) and it differs significantly from subjects without depression. Aim. Present study evaluated the correlation of depression, measured by Self Rating Depression - Zung (Zung SDS), with several items from MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF - 36), to measure the correlation between severity of depression and some aspects of QOL like: health, activity and social functioning, personal estimation of mental functioning and pain. Method. Eighty nine subjects were included, age 39,1±14,8years, education 11,5±2,4 years, married 53,9%, female 37%. Two aforementioned scales were completed by all subjects. Results. According to Zung SDS, mean depression score was 40,5±10.3. The most significant predictive power of depression was found in two SF 36 items: general mental functioning (item 9, p=0.00) and health (item 1, p=0.008). Activity and social functioning and pain hadn’t predicted depression in our sample (p=0.716 and p=0.161, respectively). Pearson’s coefficient of the correlation between general health and depression was - 0.688, while it was -0.778 between depression and personal estimation of the mental functioning. Conclusion: Nowadays, SF 36 has been used widely in medical research. Our results yielded that medical doctors of every specialization has to pay an additional attention to the patients who scored low on the first and ninth SF 36 item. These patients have an increased chance for depression, thus they should be provided by additional diagnostics and the treatment.