Single item on positive affect is associated with 1-year survival in consecutive medical inpatients

OBJECTIVE: To determine the independent effects of positive and negative affect items on mortality in consecutive medical inpatients.

METHODS: Consecutive general medical inpatients were asked to complete the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) at admission. Prognostic indicators were obtained from patients' records and physicians' ratings. The study end point was mortality from all causes at 1 year.

RESULTS: The baseline assessment was completed by 575 patients (87.7%). Survival data were available for 572 of these (86 deaths). HADS depression scores and several physical risk indicators predicted mortality. Independent effects could be observed for HADS item 1 ("Can enjoy things as much as before") adjusted for physicians' ratings of prognosis, a principal diagnosis of hemato-oncological disease and Charlson comorbidity scores. In contrast, HADS depression items 2-7 (Model 1) as well as positive HADS depression scores did not contribute significantly to the prediction of mortality.

CONCLUSION: Our present results suggest that one single item on positive affect independently predicts 1-year survival in consecutively admitted medical inpatients. Interestingly, this item has a stronger association with survival status than the presence of depressed mood.