CHRONIC PAIN PATIENT'S QUALITY OF LIFE - A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Background: A meta-analysis was performed to quantitatively estimate HRQoL in chronic pain patients. Methods: PubMed, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO and EMBASE were searched. Query: "(chronic pain) (abstract) and ("quality of life" OR "HRQOL") (abstract)". Included studies should report HRQoL, using SF-36 questionnaire, in adults with non-cancer chronic pain followed in pain management units. Studies methodological quality was evaluated using the QATSDD scale. The inverse variance method was employed to calculate pooled means and 95% CI for each dimension and subgroup analysis was performed. Findings: 27 articles were selected. Pooled mean scores were low for every SF-36 dimension (ranging from 16 [10.06, 22.25], for Role Physical, to 52 [49.01, 54.63] for Mental Health, including summary scales: PCS 29.72 [28.12, 31.32] and MCS 42.89 [38.59, 47.19] (mean [95% CI]). Discussion: HRQoL of chronic pain patients is low in all dimensions. Psychological interventions have an important role to improve HRQoL in this population and should be promoted and encouraged.