Quality of life and social adaptation in women suffering from fibromyalgia

Abstract

We set up a study to analyze quality of life and social adaptation in a group of women suffering from fibromyalgia.Patient inclusion from 1st March to 30th June 2010. An especially designed questionnaire was used for the study, together with Short-Form-36 Health Survey (SF36), Family Apgar questionnaire, Duke-UNC Functional Social Support (Duke-UNC 11) questionnaire, and Social Adaptation Self-evaluation Scale (SASS). SPSS was used for statistical analysis.Following explanation of purpose of our study and confidentiality agreement, 35 women voluntarily joined our study. Mean age was 52.2 years standard deviation (SD) 7.17. 82,9% had children (mean 2.03 and SD 0.94); 85.7% of patients acknowledged coping with fibromyalgia “badly” or “very badly”; 60% acknowledged that their illness affected their families “severely” or “critically”; 94.3% acknowledged their quality of life affected “much” or “very much”; and 85.7% of patients had their social relationships “much” or “very much” affected. 82.9% of our group of patients was under psychiatric treatment. SF36 scored an average of 27.85 on the physical functioning subscale (SD 19.93); physical role 6.42 (SD 18.53); pain 16.64 (SD 13.7); social functioning 32.14 (SD 21.92); mental health 33.14 (SD 19.0); emotional role 15.23 (SD 30.61); vitality 16.28 (SD 18.60) and general health perception 16.71 (SD 14.54). Family Apgar scored 7.34 (SD 2.53). Duke-UNC 11 scored 35.17 (SD 11.34). Finally, SASS scored 31.32 (SD 7.59).In view of the results, women suffering from fibromyalgia showed severe changes in all parameters analyzed, social adaptation being very much impaired.