Associations between Depression, Anxiety, Fatigue and Health-Related Quality of Life in People with Multiple Sclerosis

The aim of this study is to describe associations between physical and mental domains of health-related quality of life (PCS, MCS) and fatigue, depression and anxiety in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Sample consisted of 156 participants. Health-related quality of life was assessed by 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), fatigue was assessed by general fatigue subscale of Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) and depression and anxiety were assessed using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Multiple linear regressions were performed in IBM SPSS Statistics 23 software. The total explained variance for both PCS and MCS model was over 50%. The role of anxiety and depression was significant only in MCS. Fatigue was on the other hand significant in both PCS and MCS. This symptom affects both dimensions and thus therapy aimed at management of fatigue can possibly alter both of these dimensions.