Quality of well being in patients with fibromyalgia

Objective. The Quality of Well-being Scale (QWB) is a generic measure of he alth related quality of life that can be used for population monitoring, me asurement of clinical outcomes, or cost effectiveness analysis. We report d ata on the validity of the QWB for patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and comp are the effect of FM to that of other chronic diseases. Methods. The participants were 594 people recruited from a private health m aintenance organization with a confirmed diagnosis of FM. The QWB was admin istered, along with measures of self-rated health status, physical function ing, pain, stiffness, anxiety, sleep, and depression. The QWB places levels of wellness on a continuum ranging from 0.0 (for death or the equivalent o f bring dead) to 1.0 (for optimum functioning without symptoms). Results. Patients with FM had mean QWB scores of 0.559 (SD 0.074), which is lower than scores reported for patients in most other chronic disease cate gories. QWB was significantly correlated with measures of physical function ing, stiffness, anxiety, depression, pain, and sleep quality. Conclusion. Evidence supports the validity of the QWB for patients with FM. Patients with FM obtain lower scores on the QWB than patients with diagnos es of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, rheumatoid arthritis, atrial f ibrillation, advanced cancer, and several other chronic diseases. Although FM is generally considered a syndrome rather than a disease, substantial di sability is experienced by people with this diagnosis.