Influence of relatives' anxious symptomatology on the quality of life of pretransplant hepatic patients

Objectives

We sought to analyze the influence of anxiety symptoms of relatives of patients undergoing a pretransplant study on the quality of life of the hepatic patients body pain, physical role, mental health, general health, vitality, social functioning, emotional role, and physical functioning.

Materials and Methods

We assessed 2 groups: 51 patients with hepatic cirrhosis and 51 of their closest relatives who were studied while the patients were hospitalized to undergo the pretransplant study. We used a “Psychosocial Survey” (in both groups), the “Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale” (HADS) in the relatives, and the “SF-36 Health Survey” (in the patients).

Results

The results showed that the patients whose relatives presented clinical levels of anxiety showed the worst quality of life, specifically for the dimensions “mental health” (P = .016) and “emotional role” (P = .041).