Psychological Aspects of Rheumatic Disease

Subjects were matched on severity of rheumatic disease. Quality-of-Life was then compared for two depression groups (Low and High). Depression groups were obtained by dividing subjects' scores at the mid-point score and assigning everyone below this score to the Low Depression group and everyone above this score to the High depression group.

Quality-of-Life was measured using a researcher-designed instrument developed using feedback from experts in the field and the information contained in the Quality-of-Life literature. The severity of rheumatic disease was measured by having the physicians of each patient rate disease severity along a ten point scale with severity increasing with numerical score value. Depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory, a 21 item standardized instrument designed to provide a quantitative assessment of the intensity of depression.

Data was analyzed using the t-test analysis to compare Quality-of-Life scores for the two depression groups. Findings indicated that Quality-of-Life was significantly lower in the

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rument that has been established to be psychometrically sound in a variety of diverse studies (Leahy, 1992). Thus, of the three measures used in the study, the only one in which confidence can be placed as to its reliability and validity is the Beck Depression Inventory. In addition to the problem concerning the test instrument, the study also has some difficulties in relation to sample subjects. First, age itself can lead to increasing physical debilitation and attendant levels of depression (Skipwith, 1994). Given this, an attempt should have been made to not only match subjects with respect to the variable of severity of disease but also with respect to the age variable. Because of the failure to control for age in this way, it is possible that Quality-of-Life differences were, at least in part, attributable not to differences in depression but to differences in subjects' ages. Indeed, when one considers the level of physical debilitation that can take place across the sample age range--65 to 80--the reasonableness of this speculation is made even more salient. Further, there is a problem associated with the fact that subjects were volunteers. According to Adair (1973), volunteers are a group with consistently different
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Approximate Word count = 1462
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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