Evaluation of the SF‑36 questionnaire for assessment of the quality of life of endometriosis patients undergoing treatment: A systematic review and meta‑analysis

Romina‐Marina Sima, Romina-Marina Sima, Liana Pleș, Liana Pleş, Bogdan Socea, P Sklavounos, Panagiotis Sklavounos, Ionuţ Negoi, Anca-Daniela Stănescu, Ioan-Iulian Iordache, Bashar Haj Hamoud, Marc Phillip Radosa, Marc P. Radosa, Ingolf Juhasz-Boess, Ingolf Juhasz-Böess, Erich Franz Solomayer, Erich Solomayer, Mihai C T Dimitriu, Mihai Dimitriu, Cătălin Cîrstoveanu, Dragoş Şerban, Julia Caroline Radosa
Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2021 · vol. 22(5) , pp. 1283 · doi:10.3892/etm.2021.10718 · PMID:34630638 · PMC8461506 · W3199200562
review OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 7 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This systematic review and meta-analysis found the SF-36 questionnaire to be an efficient tool for assessing quality of life in endometriosis patients, particularly regarding physical functioning improvements after treatment.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated whether the SF-36 questionnaire is an efficient tool for assessing health-related quality of life in 11,101 women with endometriosis (6,888 diagnosed) who underwent medical and/or surgical treatment, using PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane searches with inclusion of studies interviewing patients before and after treatment or comparing groups. Across 37 included articles for qualitative synthesis and 14 for quantitative meta-analysis, quality-of-life domains most affected were physical functioning, which showed the strongest impairment and the greatest improvement after surgical intervention and hormonal treatment, with physical functioning specifically yielding pooled odds ratios indicating substantial change. The authors note key limitations, including study heterogeneity and exclusions from meta-analysis when SF-36 pre/post data were missing, incomplete, or only presented in figures or as non-numeric results. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it systematically reviews and meta-analyzes the use of SF-36 to quantify quality-of-life changes in endometriosis patients undergoing treatment.

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Abstract

Endometriosis has a negative influence on the physical, psychological, and social aspects of a patient's life; therefore, it affects the health‑related quality of life (HRQoL). The current review aimed to investigate the efficiency of a 36‑item generic questionnaire survey (SF‑36) for patients with endometriosis who were undergoing medical or surgical treatment. A search strategy including the key words ‘endometriosis’, ‘quality of life’ (QOL), and ‘questionnaire SF‑36’ was applied using the PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases in order to include articles that evaluated the QOL among women with endometriosis using the SF‑36. Only articles that included interviews of patients both before and after surgical or medical endometriosis treatment or those articles that compared study groups were considered. The qualitative analysis was based on 37 articles, whereas the quantitative analysis utilized 14 articles. The research participants included 11,101 women, among whom 6,888 patients were diagnosed with endometriosis. The analysis recorded 17 studies dealing with all types of endometriosis, 9 studies dealing with deep infiltrative endometriosis (DIE), and 9 studies dealing with bowel endometriosis or DIE with bowel involvement. QOL was evaluated using only SF‑36 in 12 studies that collectively included 1,912 women and using SF‑36 in association with other questionnaires in 25 studies that collectively included 8,022 women. For patients with endometriosis, physical functioning [odds ratio (OR), 78.87; 95% confidence interval (CI), 68.97‑88.77; I2=98.77%; P≤0.001] was the most affected life parameter. This parameter showed the highest improvement after surgical intervention (OR, 63.39; 95% CI, 48.71‑78.07; I2=97.65%; P≤0.001) or hormonal treatment (OR, 38.65; 95% CI, 14.39‑62.91; I2=38.65%; P≤0.001). The 36‑item survey generic questionnaire seems to be an efficient tool for assessment of the QOL of life of women with endometriosis who are undergoing surgical or medical treatment. It can be applied before and after the procedure, and it can also be used for comparing study groups.

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endometriosisdie_deep_infiltratingbowel_endometriosis

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Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

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