Factors associated with subjective quality of life in Korean patients with depressive disorders: the CRESCEND study Young-Eun Jung • Ho-Jun Seo • Hoo Rim Song • Young Sup Woo • Hyeon-Woo Yim • Hyung-Mo Sung • Min-Soo Lee • Jae-Min Kim • Tae-Youn Jun Accepted: 30 August 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract Purpose A number of studies suggest that depression is associated with the significant disability and the poorer subjective quality of life (QOL). We aimed to assess sub- jective QOL in Korean patients with depression and explore the factors (sociodemographic characteristics and clinical features) associated with subjective QOL. Methods We obtained the data from 808 depressive patients who entered the Clinical Research Center for Depression (CRESCEND) study and evaluated the rela- tionship between subjective QOL and personal sociode- mographics, and various clinical features, including depressive severity, and subjective QOL. We assessed subjective QOL using the 26-item abbreviated version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHO- QOL-BREF) instrument. Results Decrements in patients’ physical health, psycho- logical health, social relationships, and environment domains of subjective QOL were all strongly associated with the greater depressive symptom severity. After con- trolling for age and depressive symptom severity, the lower subjective QOL was independently related to being divorced or separated, the less monthly household income, and having no religious practices. Conclusion Our results suggest the importance of soci- odemographic characteristics in addition to symptoms for the understanding of subjective QOL in depressed patients. The prospective studies to compare the different treat- ments’ effects on various subjective QOL domains are needed. Keywords Depression Á Subjective quality of life Á Korean Á WHOQOL-BREF Abbreviations BDI-II Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition CGI Clinical Global Impression scale CRESCEND Clinical Research Center for Depression CRF Case report form DSM-IV Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition HAM-A Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale HAM-D 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale QOL Quality of life Y.-E. Jung Á H.-J. Seo Á H. R. Song Á Y. S. Woo Á T.-Y. Jun (&) Department of Psychiatry, The Catholic University College of Medicine, 62 Yeouido-Dong, Youngdeungpo-Gu, Seoul 150-713, Republic of Korea e-mail: tyjun@catholic.ac.kr Y.-E. Jung Department of Psychiatry, Saint Carollo Hospital, Sunchen, Republic of Korea H.-W. Yim Department of Preventive Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea H.-M. Sung Department of Psychiatry, Gumi CHA Medical Center, CHA University, Gumi, Republic of Korea M.-S. Lee Department of Psychiatry, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea J.-M. Kim Department of Psychiatry, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Republic of Korea 123 Qual Life Res DOI 10.1007/s11136-011-0006-5