Persons with chronic disease experience multiple symptoms. self-rated health (Adjusted odds ratio 1.9; 95% confidence interval 1.2-2.9), and functional disability (Adjusted odds ratio 1.8; 95% confidence interval 1.2-2.7). Feelings of depression were associated with poorer quality of life (Adjusted odds ratio 1.7; 95% confidence interval 1.1-2.6), and shortness of breath was associated with lower self-rated health (Adjusted odds ratio 1.5; 95% confidence interval 1.1-2.0). The association between a range of symptoms and quality of life, self-rated 59721-29-8 supplier health, and functional status differed across outcomes, but only three symptomsphysical discomfort, feelings of depression and shortness of breathmaintained their associations when multiple symptoms were examined concurrently. These findings suggest that interventions targeting these symptoms could improve several health-related outcomes. < 0.05) with at least one of the health outcomes. Physical discomfort was the symptom most strongly associated with lower self-rated health (odds ratio [OR] 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.58, 3.19) and functional disability (OR 2.0; CI 1.42, 2.72). Feelings of depression was the symptom most strongly associated with poorer quality of life (OR 1.9; CI 1.35, 2.72). Shortness of breath and fatigue 59721-29-8 supplier were associated with each of the outcomes, with ORs ranging from 1.4 to 1 1.7. Pain was associated only with lower self-rated health (OR 1.4; CI 1.06, 1.82). Problems with appetite and anxiety were not associated with any of the outcomes. Table 2 Bivariate associations between individual symptoms and the odds of poorer quality of 59721-29-8 supplier life, lower self-rated health, or functional disability Principal components The factor loadings and definitions of components are presented in Table 3. Physical discomfort and fatigue had high loadings onto two factors, the first of which included pain and problems with appetite; the second of which included shortness of breath. We elected to include fatigue and physical 59721-29-8 supplier discomfort with the component that included pain in accordance with recognized symptom clusters (31). Therefore, we combined physical discomfort, fatigue, problems with appetite, and pain into a Physical component. Feelings of depression and anxiety comprised the second component, which we called Affective. Shortness of breath comprised the third component. TABLE 3 Factor Loadings of symptoms from Principal Component Analysis Multivariable associations Logistic regression with individual symptoms Of all the symptoms associated with the outcomes in bivariate analysis, only physical discomfort, feelings of depression and shortness of breath retained their significance in multivariable analyses (Table 4). Feelings of depression were independently associated with poorer quality of life (OR 1.7; CI 1.13- 2.57). Physical discomfort (OR 1.9; CI 1.21- 2.86) and shortness of breath (OR 1.5; CI 1.08- 2.00) were independently associated with lower self-rated health. Physical discomfort was also independently associated with functional disability (OR 1.8; CI 1.19- 2.67). In 59721-29-8 supplier addition to these associations, there was a trend toward an association between the symptoms physical discomfort (OR 1.3; CI 0.85, 1.91), fatigue (OR 1.3; CI 0.92, 1.68), and shortness of breath (OR 1.2; CI 0.93, 1.64) and quality of life. Table 4 Multivariable associations between individual symptoms and the odds of poorer quality of life, lower self-rated health, or functional disability Logistic regression with symptom components As seen in Table 5, the Physical component (OR 1.4; CI 1.03, 1.89) and the Affective component (OR 1.4; CI 1.02, 1.83) were associated with poorer quality of life. The Physical component (OR 1.6; CI 1.18, 2.29) and Shortness of breath component (OR 1.5; CI 1.12, 2.14) were associated with lower self-rated health. The Physical component was the only component associated with functional disability (OR 1.5; CI 1.10, 2.01). Table 5 Multivariable associations between component groups and health Rabbit Polyclonal to TUBGCP6 outcomes Logistic regression with individual symptoms compared with symptom components For two of the three outcomes, self-rated health and functional disability, examining symptom components did not provide additional information to that provided by examining individual symptoms. For these outcomes, the independent associations observed with the symptom components were also observed with the individual symptom within.