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Alexithymia and Health-Related Quality of Life in a General Population

Received January 29, 2007; revised May 16, 2007; accepted May 18, 2007. From the Tampere School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland; the Dept. of Psychiatry, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland; the National Public Health Institute, Dept. of Mental Health and Alcohol Research, Helsinki, Finland; the National Public Health Institute, Dept. of Health and Functional Capacity, Laboratory for Population Research, Turku, Finland; and the Dept. of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. Send correspondence and reprint requests to Aino K. Mattila, M.D., Tampere School of Public Health, FIN-33014, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. e-mail: aino.mattila{at}uta.fi
© 2009 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine

BACKGROUND: Alexithymia is thought to reflect a deficit in the cognitive processing of emotion, and, therefore, it may predispose individuals to both psychological and somatic symptoms. OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the relationship between alexithymia and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a nationally representative population sample of 5,418 subjects, age 30 to 97 years. METHOD: Alexithymia was measured with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS–20) and HRQoL measured with the 15D, a generic HRQoL measure. RESULTS: Alexithymia was significantly associated with lower HRQoL independently of other variables. The TAS–20 subfactor Difficulties Identifying Feelings was the strongest common denominator between alexithymia and HRQoL. CONCLUSION: Alexithymia may be a predisposing factor to poorer HRQoL.

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