Quality of life in pathological gamblers in a multiethnic asian setting

Abstract

Introduction: Few studies have examined the impact of pathological gambling on quality of life especially in the Asian context. The aim of the current study was to examine the quality of life in pathological gamblers in a multiracial population in Singapore and we hypothesised that those with pathological gambling would have poorer quality of life as compared to controls. Materials and Methods: Forty subjects with "compulsive gambling behaviour" were recruited and matched (for gender and age) with 40 controls. Subjects with pathological gambling were compared with control subjects with regard to sociodemographic data as well as on the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment - abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF). Results: A one-way MANOVA revealed that pathological gamblers had signifi cantly diminished quality of life as compared with the healthy controls using the summary scores of the 4 domains of quality of life (Pillai's Trace = 0.338, F = 9.5, P