Relationships between social functioning and quality of life in a population of Dutch adult psychiatric outpatients

Background: The relationship between social functioning and QOL in psychiatric patients has not been explicitly investigated before.Aims: To investigate the relationship between social functioning and QOL in a population of psychiatric outpatients (N = 410) with a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders.Method: Social functioning was assessed with the Groningen Social Behavior Questionnaire-100 (GSBQ-100) and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. QOL was measured with the WHO Quality of Life Assessment Instrument (WHOQOL-100).Results: The study population experienced a wide range of problems concerning all aspects of social functioning. The numbers of problems were significantly higher compared with healthy controls and (partly) also compared with a norm group of psychiatric outpatients. Almost all scales of the GSBQ-100 were negatively correlated with all QOL aspects, whereas the GAF score correlated positively with all QOL aspects. In general, participants with problems on aspects of social ...