Measuring quality of life in chronic pelvic pain syndrome

Abstract

The evaluation of health-related quality of life (QoL) in patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome is a challenging problem owing to the complexity of the underlying diagnoses and the multitude of instruments available. QoL may seem an obvious concept overall, generally encompassing physical functioning, social interactions and psychological wellbeing, but providing quantitative measures can be challenging and involves assurance of both face validity and psychometric statistical robustness. In addition to generic QoL measures, chronic pelvic pain-related disease-specific measures for endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, irritable bowel syndrome and vulvodynia can assist in identification of multiple concurrent diagnoses. This article reviews recent advances in QoL evaluation of chronic pelvic pain, and describes the features of both the generic and disease-specific instruments available to assist clinicians and researchers in evaluating patients and optimizing outcomes.