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Nas, Z, Zavos, HMS, Sumathipala, A, Jayaweera, K, Siribaddana, S, Hotopf, M and Rijsdijk, FV (2021) Associations Between Anxiety Symptoms and Health-Related Quality of Life: A Population-Based Twin Study in Sri Lanka. Behavior Genetics. ISSN 0001-8244
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Abstract
Anxiety not only concerns mental wellbeing but also negatively impacts other areas of health. Yet, there is limited research on (a) the genetic and environmental aetiology of such relationships; (b) sex differences in aetiology and (c) non-European samples. In this study, we investigated the genetic and environmental variation and covariation of anxiety symptoms and eight components of health-related quality of life (QoL), as measured by the short form health survey (SF-36), using genetic twin model fitting analysis. Data was drawn from the Colombo Twin and Singleton Study (COTASS), a population-based sample in Sri Lanka with data on twins (N = 2921) and singletons (N = 1027). Individual differences in anxiety and QoL traits showed more shared environmental (family) effects in women. Men did not show familial effects. Anxiety negatively correlated with all eight components of QoL, mostly driven by overlapping unique (individual-specific) environmental effects in both sexes and overlapping shared environmental effects in women. This is the first study in a South Asian population supporting the association between poor mental health and reduced QoL, highlighting the value of integrated healthcare services. Associations were largely environmental, on both individual and family levels, which could be informative for therapy and intervention.
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Anxiety Quality of life Twin study Sex differences Non-western samples |
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF176 Psychological tests and testing B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF660 Comparative psychology. Animal and human psychology |
Divisions: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Primary, Community and Social Care |
Related URLs: | |
Depositing User: | Symplectic |
Date Deposited: | 27 Apr 2021 07:52 |
Last Modified: | 27 Apr 2021 07:52 |
URI: | https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/9393 |