Association between physical and mental health-related quality of life and adverse outcomes; a retrospective cohort study of 5,272 Scottish adults

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is associated with adverse outcomes in disease-specific populations. This study examines whether it is also independent predictor of incident cancer, coronary heart disease (CHD) and mortality in the general population. METHODS: The records of adult participants in the Scottish Health Survey 2003 were linked with hospital admissions, cancer registrations and death certificates. Cox proportional hazard models were used to explore the associations between quintiles of physical and mental component summary score (PCS and MCS respectively) of the SF-12 and adverse outcomes. Higher quintiles of both PCS and MCS indicate better health status. RESULTS: Among the 5,272 study participants, the mean PCS score was 49 (standard deviation (SD) 10.3). Participants were followed-up for a mean of 7.6 years. On survival analysis the lowest quintile of PCS was a strong predictor of all-cause death (hazard ratio (HR) 2.81, 95% CI 1.76, 4.49), incident cancer (HR 1.63, 95% CI 1.10, 2.42), and CHD events (HR 1.99, 95% CI 1.00, 3.96), compared to the highest quintile. This association was independent of adiposity and other confounders. The mean MCS score 52 (SD 8.8). MCS quintile was not associated with incident cancer and CHD, and the association between MCS and all-cause death (HR 1.33, 95% CI 1.01, 1.75) became non-significant after adjustment for adiposity. CONCLUSION: Physical HRQoL is a significant predictor of a range of adverse outcomes, even after adjustment for adiposity and other confounders. This study highlights the importance of perceived health in the general population. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-1197) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.