Introduction
Depressive, depressive, metabolic syndrome, depressive symptoms, depression, hypertension, long-term chronic diseases, diabetes
DISEASE, CHRONIC DISEASES, METABOLIC SYNDROME, HYPERTENSION, DISEASES, CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE, DIABETES
Healthcare professionals strive not only to extend or save their patients’ lives but also to relieve their symptoms and improve their function and ability to participate in their daily life activities. At best, we can help patients to prevent diseases. In other words, our aim is to improve the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of our patients.Health-related quality of life is an important indicator that gives us the patient’s perspectives of health outcomes and the disease experience which is different from our clinical measurements. In healthcare-centred thinking, clinical measurements may appear more objective but are less meaningful to individual patients. Using HRQoL, we gain insight into any change in the physical, mental and social quality of life caused by the patient’s illness, its symptoms, worries and treatment. HRQoL is also an important dimension of the quality and effectiveness of our health care and an important predictor of mortality and morbidity [In a large Finnish population-based study, HRQoL was measured in 29 particular diseases [Depressive symptoms even without clinical depression are associated with an unhealthy lifestyle in HA patients with metabolic syndrome [Based on the existing scientific evidence, we can hypothesize that even milder depressive symptoms without clinical depression may contribute to decreasing HRQoL in patients with long-term chronic diseases. However, we do not know much about the relationship between depressive symptoms and HRQoL in primary care patients with common chronic diseases. Therefore, our aim in the present study was to investigate the predicting role of baseline depressive symptoms in the change of HRQoL after a 12-month follow-up in the three disease groups: hypertension, coronary artery disease and diabetes.