The impact of pain intensity on quality of life of postherpetic neuralgia patients.

Abstract

Aim To investigate the impact of pain intensity of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) patients. Methods This cross sectional study included 30 PHN patients attended to the Dermatology and Venereology Department of the School of Medicine of Universitas Sumatera Utara during the period between April 2019 and October 2019. Zoster Brief Pain Inventory questionnaire including the worst pain in 24 hours and the level of interference with seven domains of quality of life (QoL) (general activity, mood, walking ability, working, relationship with other people, sleep and enjoyment of life) were used. Pearson's correlation (r) was categorized as very weak (0.0-< 0.2), weak (0.2-< 0.4), moderate (0.4-< 0.6), strong (0.6-<0.8), and very strong (0.8-1.0). Results There was a very strong correlation between worst pain intensity and mood disturbance (r=0.846) and working status (r=0.818). Worst pain intensity had a strong correlation with general activity (r=0.673), relationship with other people (r=0.653), sleep (r=0.774) and disturbance of enjoyment of life (r=0.783). Therefore, the correlation between worst pain intensity and walking ability was moderate (r=0.475). The worst pain intensity had a significant correlation with all seven domains of QoL (p<0.05). Conclusion Pain intensity influences the QoL with directly proportional correlation between pain intensity and disturbance of QoL.