Emotional States and Health-related Quality of Life in Patients with Thyroid Dysfunction: A Cross-sectional Study

The potential relationship between thyroid dysfunction with common psychological problems (i.e., depression, anxiety, and stress), and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been discussed in the literatures. However, previous studies have mostly addressed overt hypo-hyper thyroid patients, and it has been limited to hypothyroidism in Iranian population. The novelty of this study is investigating the same relationship using the most up-to-date and reliable questionnaires among Iranian adults with overt and subclinical hypo- and hyper- thyroid dysfunctions compared to euthyroid individuals.

In this cross-sectional study, the participants were selected randomly from patients referred to the endocrinology clinic. In this regard, 212 patients were selected regarding inclusion and exclusion criteria and categorized into hypofunctional (subclinical and overt hypothyroidism), hyperfunctional (subclinical and overt hyperthyroidism), and euthyroid groups. The participants’ emotional states and HRQoL were assessed using the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Short-Form 12-point Health Survey Version 2 (SF-12v2). The collected data was analyzed with the SPSS software version 22.

 The results indicated that those with thyroid dysfunction in both hypofunctional and hyperfunctional groups had significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms (p<0.05) and lower HRQoL than their euthyroid counterparts. However, a more detailed analysis showed that the physical and mental domains of HRQoL were mainly affected in the participants with hyper- and hypo-functional dysfunction, respectively.

 The present findings revealed that thyroid dysfunction could lead to negative emotional states in adult populations. Similar findings have been achieved for HRQoL in different aspects.