Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology ISSN 2282-1619 1 Vol 7, n 2, 2019 Articles The association of quality of life between anxiety and depression in patients with chronic rheumatic heart disease Sabreena Shafi Sheikh 1 , Saurabh Dahiya 1* , Anwar Hussain Ansari 2 , Mudigubba Manoj Kumar 3 Abstract Objective: The main objective of the study was to measure the association of quality of life between anxiety and depression in patients with chronic rheumatic heart disease. Methodology: Psychometric assessment (anxiety and depression) of the subjects was measured using HADS. Clinical data were collected from the Department of Cardiology OPD of Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. A total of 500 RHD patients and 100 healthy controls were included in the study based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data analysis was performed with Chi square test and ANOVA using IBM SPSS version 22. Findings: Almost 80% of the subjects were suffering from moderate RHD, and 20% were suffering from Severe RHD. Most cases of RHD were suffering from moderate anxiety and depression levels. Among all the variables of SF-36 questionnaire, only pain was only variable associated with anxiety. None of the SF-36 variables was associated with depression in patients with RHD. Conclusion: It was seen that high levels of anxiety and depression levels are present in patients with RHD. It was also observed that the high anxiety levels in the RHD patients can also be a major cause of depression in patients. The factors related to the disease like physical pain, social functioning, and general health causes high anxiety and depression in the patients when the disease prevails over a long time. 1 Department of Pharmacy, Lingayas University, Faridabad, Haryana, India 2 Department of Cardiology, Safdarjung Hospital, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, India 3 Department of Pharmacy, M.S Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore, India E-mail corresponding author: saurabhdahiya@gmail.com Keywords: Rheumatic Heart Disease; RHD; Depression; Anxiety; HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale); Stress. DOI: 10.6092/2282-1619/2019.7.2164 1. Introduction Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is a condition that is initiated by the rheumatic fever and results in damaged heart valves of the affected individual. Rheumatic fever is generally caused by group A streptococcal bacterial infection (Marijon et al., 2012). According to a recent report, there were 15.6 million of existing cases of RHD and each year 233,000 number of deaths caused by RHD and 282,000 new RHD cases were reported globally (Watkins et al., 2017). The epidemiological data presented by the author revealed that the disease