The influence of subjective well-being on anxiety, depression and quality of life in patients with functional dyspepsia

Background Subjective well-being (SWB) was subjective happiness, and it was also objective. Anxiety and depression are now gradually believed to be the causes of functional dyspepsia (FD). The influence of SWB was ignored in FD patients. To explore the influence of SWB on anxiety, depression, symptom severity and quality of life (QoL) in FD patients. Methods A total of 374 patients with FD were selected according to Roman IV criteria. Satisfaction with life scale and affect balance scale, Generalized anxiety disorders-7, Patient healthy questionnaire-9, Dyspepsia symptoms severity(DSS）and Nepean dyspepsia index(NDI） were used to assess SWB,anxiety, depression, symptoms severity and QoL, respectively. One-way variance analysis, t-test, Pearson’s correlation and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the results. Results Life satisfaction and emotional balance of FD patients were negatively correlated with DSS, anxiety, depression, and NDI for QoL（r=-0.148,-0.330,-0.325,-0.195， all P <0.01), (r=-0.205,-0.545,-0.550, -0.357, all P <0.001), respectively. Multiple linear regression showed that life satisfaction and emotional balance were influencing factors of anxiety（β= -0. 143, P =0.001）, (β= -0. 318, P <0.001)， and depression（β=-0. 122, P =0.003）, (β= -0. 287, P <0.001), respectively. After removing anxiety and depression, life satisfaction and emotional balance were influencing factors of patients' DSS （β= -0.105, P =0.049）, (β= -0.180, P =0.001), and QoL（β= -0.117, P =0.023）, (β= -0.329, P <0.001) ,respectively. Conclusions FD patients’ SWB negatively affects their disease severity, anxiety and depression, and positively affects their QoL. These results suggested that further strengthening SWB may help reduce symptom severity and improve the QoL of patients, which needs to be confirmed by future follow-up studies.