Usefulness of the SF-36 Health Survey in screening for depressive and anxiety disorders in rheumatoid arthritis

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to assess the accuracy of the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) mental health subscale (MH) and mental component summary (MCS) scores in identifying the presence of probable major depressive or anxiety disorder in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: SF-36 data were collected in 100 hospital outpatients with rheumatoid arthritis. MH and MCS scores were compared against depression and anxiety data collected using validated measures as part of routine clinical practice. Sensitivity and specificity of the SF-36 were established using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and area under the curve (AUC) compared the performance of the SF-36 components with the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9) for depression and the 7-item Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD7) questionnaire for anxiety. RESULTS: The MH with a threshold of ≤52 had sensitivity and specificity of 81.0 and 71.4 % respectively to detect anxiety, correctly classifying 73.5 % of patients with probable anxiety disorder. A threshold of ≤56 had sensitivity and specificity of 92.6 and 73.2 % respectively to detect depression, correctly classifying 78.6 % of patients, and the same threshold could also be used to detect either depression or anxiety with a sensitivity of 87.9 %, specificity of 76.9 % and accuracy of 80.6 %. The MCS with a threshold of ≤35 had sensitivity and specificity of 85.7 and 81.9 % respectively to detect anxiety, correctly classifying 82.8 % of patients with probable anxiety disorder. A threshold of ≤40 had sensitivity and specificity of 92.3 and 70.2 % respectively to detect depression, correctly classifying 76.3 % of patients. A threshold of ≤38 could be used to detect either depression or anxiety with a sensitivity of 87.5 %, specificity of 80.3 % and accuracy of 82.8 %. CONCLUSION: This analysis may increase the utility of a widely-used questionnaire. Overall, optimal use of the SF-36 for screening for mental disorder may be through using the MCS with a threshold of ≤38 to identify the presence of either depression or anxiety. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12891-016-1083-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Are depression and anxiety associated with disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis?:A prospective study

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the impact of depression and anxiety scores on disease activity at 1-year follow-up in people with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). METHODS: The Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) was used to measure depression and anxiety in a cross-section of RA patients. The primary outcome of interest was disease activity (DAS28), measured one-year after baseline assessment. Secondary outcomes were: tender joint count, swollen joint count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and patient global assessment, also measured one-year after baseline assessment. We also examined the impact of baseline depression and anxiety on odds of reaching clinical remission at 1-year follow-up. RESULTS: In total, 56 RA patients were eligible for inclusion in this analysis. Before adjusting for key demographic and disease variables, increased baseline depression and anxiety were associated with increased disease activity at one-year follow-up, although this was not sustained after adjusting for baseline disease activity. There was a strong association between depression and anxiety and the subjective components of the DAS28 at 12-month follow-up: tender joint count and patient global assessment. After adjusting for age, gender, disease duration and baseline tender joint count and patient global assessment respectively, higher levels of depression and anxiety at baseline were associated with increased tender joint count and patient global assessment scores at 1-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Symptoms of depression and anxiety have implications for disease activity, as measured via the DAS28, primarily due to their influence on tender joints and patient global assessment. These findings have implications for treatment decision-making as inflated DAS28 despite well controlled inflammatory disease markers may indicate significant psychological morbidity and related non-inflammatory pain, rather than true disease activity

Barriers to and Facilitators of Engagement With mHealth Technology for Remote Measurement and Management of Depression: Qualitative Analysis

BACKGROUND: Mobile technology has the potential to provide accurate, impactful data on the symptoms of depression, which could improve health management or assist in early detection of relapse. However, for this potential to be achieved, it is essential that patients engage with the technology. Although many barriers to and facilitators of the use of this technology are common across therapeutic areas and technology types, many may be specific to cultural and health contexts. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the potential barriers to and facilitators of engagement with mobile health (mHealth) technology for remote measurement and management of depression across three Western European countries. METHODS: Participants (N=25; 4:1 ratio of women to men; age range, 25-73 years) who experienced depression participated in five focus groups held in three countries (two in the United Kingdom, two in Spain, and one in Italy). The focus groups investigated the potential barriers to and facilitators of the use of mHealth technology. A systematic thematic analysis was used to extract themes and subthemes. RESULTS: Facilitators and barriers were categorized as health-related factors, user-related factors, and technology-related factors. A total of 58 subthemes of specific barriers and facilitators or moderators emerged. A core group of themes including motivation, potential impact on mood and anxiety, aspects of inconvenience, and ease of use was noted across all countries. CONCLUSIONS: Similarities in the barriers to and facilitators of the use of mHealth technology have been observed across Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. These themes provide guidance on ways to promote the design of feasible and acceptable cross-cultural mHealth tools. ©Sara Simblett, Faith Matcham, Sara Siddi, Viola Bulgari, Chiara Barattieri di San Pietro, Jorge Hortas López, José Ferrão, Ashley Polhemus, Josep Maria Haro, Giovanni de Girolamo, Peter Gamble, Hans Eriksson, Matthew Hotopf, Til Wykes, RADAR-CNS Consortium. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 30.01.2019

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus and abnormal glucose metabolism in the inpatient psychiatric setting : A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective To systematically determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM), impaired fasting glucose (IFG), and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in psychiatric inpatients and explore the impact of patient and study variables on prevalence estimates. Method We searched EMBASE, PsychINFO, Medline and CENTRAL from database inception until 1st December 2015. We included studies of any design reporting prevalence of abnormal glucose metabolism in any adult psychiatric inpatients. We conducted a random effects meta-analysis to generate pooled prevalence estimates. Chi-square tests compared differences within categorical variables (inpatient setting, continent of study and patient diagnostic category) and Spearman's correlation analyses assessed the impact of linear variables (age, year of data collection and study quality). Study quality was assessed using an adapted Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results 36 study reports representing 42 unique cohorts were included. Across all studies prevalence of unspecified type DM was 10% (95%CI: 9–12), of T1DM was 1% (0–1), of T2DM was 9% (6–13), of IFG 18% (8–28), and of IGT was 22% (16–28). These estimates were not affected by study quality. Conclusions All estimates are higher compared to the general population. Mental health professionals should be aware of this elevated prevalence to improve screening and management of abnormal glucose metabolism