Session Information
Date: Friday, November 15, 2019
Session Title: Spine and Pain Case and Research Report
Session Time: 12:30pm-2:00pm
Location: Research Hub - Kiosk 7
Disclosures: Alice Ye, MD: Nothing to disclose
Objective: Primarily, to characterize quality-of-life (QOL) in women with chronic pelvic pain (CPP) using the Pain Disability Index (PDI), Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7). Secondarily, to compare differences in the PDI between causes of CPP, to test whether the PDI can discriminate between causes of CPP, and to assess validity of the PDI for this population.
Design: Cross-sectional survey using retrospective chart review.
Setting: Outpatient female pelvic pain clinic associated with an urban tertiary care center.
Participants: Post-menarchal women with chronic pelvic pain (N = 317) who had their initial evaluation completed at a female pelvic pain clinic from 2012 to 2017.
Interventions: Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures: Biopsychosocial perspective of QOL using the PDI for biosocial-related QOL and the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 questionnaires for psychological QOL.
Results: The mean PDI score across all patients was similar to previously reported mean for an outpatient nonspecific chronic pain population. Patients experienced the most disability in their sexual activities. The most common cause of chronic pelvic pain was pelvic floor myofascial pain. Common diagnostic categories covered gynecologic, urologic, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, and neurological causes. The PDI was unable to discriminate between diagnoses. Mean scores for PHQ-9 and GAD-7 revealed that on average, patients qualified for mild depression and anxiety diagnoses. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the validity of the PDI for this population.
Conclusions: The PDI shows promise as a questionnaire for QOL and could be a valuable clinician tool for tracking QOL in the CPP population. Additional research should be focused on assessing its ability to measure minimum clinically significant change over time.
Level of Evidence: Level IV
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Ye A, Adams WH, Westbay L, Fitzgerald CM. Evaluating Disability-related Quality of Life in Women with Chronic Pelvic Pain [abstract]. PM R. 2019; 11(S2)(suppl 2). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/evaluating-disability-related-quality-of-life-in-women-with-chronic-pelvic-pain/. Accessed May 15, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2019
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/evaluating-disability-related-quality-of-life-in-women-with-chronic-pelvic-pain/