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Quality of Life in Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis of Comparative Studies

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Studies and findings regarding the impact of schizophrenia on quality of life (QOL) has been highly variable. This meta-analysis compared QOL between schizophrenia subjects and healthy controls with a focus on standardized measures. A systematic literature search was conducted through Pubmed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases. Only studies using the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) or its brief version or the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) were included. Fifteen case-control studies with 2195 schizophrenia subjects and 1508 healthy controls were included in this meta-analysis. The WHOQOL/WHOQOL-BREF score was significantly lower in physical health (SMD = -1.80, 95% CI: -2.31 to −1.28, P < 0.001), psychological health (SMD = -1.28, 95% CI: -1.72 to −0.83, P < 0.001), social relationships (SMD = -1.60, 95% CI: -2.05 to −1.15, P < 0.001), and environment domains (SMD = -0.98, 95% CI: -1.38 to −0.59, P < 0.001) in schizophrenia subjects compared to controls. The SF-36 score was significantly lower in both physical (SMD = -1.09, 95% CI: -1.41 to −0.76, P < 0.001 and mental health domains (SMD = -2.08, 95% CI: -3.58 to −0.59, P = 0.006) in schizophrenia subjects than in controls. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses found that age, male gender, illness duration and income have significant moderating effects on QOL. The meta-analysis of studies with standardized measures confirmed that QOL in schizophrenia subjects is significantly lower than healthy controls. Effective interventions should be developed to improve QOL for this population.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the University of Macau (MYRG2015-00230-FHS; MYRG2016-00005-FHS), the National Key Research & Development Program of China (No. 2016YFC1307200), the Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals Incubating Program (No. PX2016028) and the Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals’ Ascent Plan (No. DFL20151801).

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  1. Min Dong, Li Lu, Ling Zhang and Yun-Shu Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Psychiatry, Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China

    Min Dong, Li Lu, Gang Li & Yu-Tao Xiang

  2. The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital & the Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    Ling Zhang & Gang Wang

  3. Department of Sleep Medicine, Hebei Psychiatric Hospital, Baoding, Hebei Province, China

    Yun-Shu Zhang

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Chee H. Ng

  5. University of Notre Dame Australia, & Division of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

    Gabor S. Ungvari

  6. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Canada

    Xiangfei Meng

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  1. Min Dong
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Dong, M., Lu, L., Zhang, L. et al. Quality of Life in Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis of Comparative Studies. Psychiatr Q 90, 519–532 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-019-09633-4

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