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

BackgroundAlexithymia is thought to reflect a deficit in the cognitive processing of emotion, and, therefore, it may predispose individuals to both psychological and somatic symptoms.ObjectiveThe 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.MethodAlexithymia was measured with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS–20) and HRQoL measured with the 15D, a generic HRQoL measure.ResultsAlexithymia 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.ConclusionAlexithymia may be a predisposing factor to poorer HRQoL.