Mental disorder, demographic variables and life satisfaction

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of positive screening of non-psychotic mental disorders, sociodemographic variables, and concomitant non-psychiatric chronic diseases on the Satisfaction with Life Scale scores. METHODS: The study included residents of an area covered by the Health Family Program in Santa Cruz do Sul, Southern Brazil, between June 30 and August 30, 2006. Respondents answered a psychiatric screening tool, the Self-report Questionnaire-20, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale to assess the cognitive component of subjective well-being. RESULTS: A total of 625 respondents were included in the study. Females showed significant inverse association with life satisfaction. The same association was seen between psychiatric screening and Satisfaction with Life Scale scores. Age had a significant positive association with the Scale scores. After the multivariate analysis, these three variables remained significantly associated to the outcome. Concomitant non-psychiatric chronic diseases did not show any association with Satisfaction with Life Scale scores. CONCLUSIONS: The positive association between Satisfaction with Life Scale and age corroborates its the validation study of the Brazilian Portuguese. The inverse relationship between the psychiatric screening tool and the Satisfaction with Life Scale scores confirms the negative impact of mental disorders.