Correlations between quality of life and psychological factors in patients with chronic neck pain
From: Kaohsiung J Med Sci. 2010 Jan;26(1):13-20
The purpose of this study was to investigate health related quality of life and associated factors in patients with chronic neck pain. The health related quality of life of patients with chronic neck pain was assessed by the Short Form-36 questionnaire in this cross-sectional study. To evaluate the psychological factors related to health related quality of life, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Chinese Health Questionnaire, and Beck Anxiety Inventory were used. The scores for the eight subscales of Short Form-36 were all lower than the Taiwanese age-matched normative values.
The two most strongly affected subscales were the role-physical subscale and the bodily pain subscale; both scores were below half the score of the age/sex-matched normative values. The physical components summary score, a summary measure, was moderately correlated with age, education level and Beck Anxiety Inventory score. The mental components summary score was moderately to highly correlated with the Chinese Health Questionnaire score, the neuroticism domain of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) and Beck Anxiety Inventory score. The health related quality of life of patients with chronic neck pain was worse than that of normal subjects across all domains. Furthermore, patients with a neurotic personality, minor psychiatric morbidity and higher anxiety status showed poor mental health, as measured by the Short Form-36.
The authors found that patients with chronic neck pain had multiple physical and mental health problems in terms of. The mental health of patients with chronic neck pain was strongly associated with various psychological factors. Comprehensive assessment of the physical and mental functioning of patients with chronic neck pain can improve the management and care of these patients.
Related Link: Symptoms and psychological factors five years after whiplash injury
