Age and anxiety and depressive symptoms: the effect on domains of quality of life

Objectives The present study investigated whether anxiety and depressive symptomatology moderates the relationship between age and quality of life. Methods The study was a community‐based survey using mailed questionnaires conducted within the Department of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. The community‐based sample consisted of 443 adults ages 30–98 years recruited from university maintained volunteer registries. Quality of life was assessed using the World Health Organization Quality of Life‐BREF assessment; depression was assessed using 15‐item Geriatric Depression Scale and anxiety was assessed using the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, a measure of social anxiety. Results Depression and anxiety were negatively associated with quality of life in the Psychological and Social domains (all p's