Impact of chronic pelvic pain on quality of life in diverse young adults

Purpose To examine the relationship between quality of life (QoL) and chronic pelvic pain (CPP), including an evaluation of whether differences exist between reported races and coping mechanisms used.

We used a cross-sectional survey design and analyzed data using descriptive and inferential statistics. We administered two surveys: the World Health Organization Quality of Life–BREF (26 items) and the Impact of Female Chronic Pelvic Pain Questionnaire (8 items). We recruited young adults aged 18–25 who menstruate from college campuses in a large metropolitan area in the Midwest region of the United States, utilizing flyers, online social media platforms, and snowball sampling techniques.

Out of the 585 respondents, 153 (26%) reported “yes,” and 95 (16%) were “unsure” they had CPP. Those with CPP and unsure reported using various coping mechanisms for pain. They had lower scores in all four domains (physical health, psychological, social relationship, and environment) and statistically significant lower scores in three domains (physical health, social relationship, and environment) on the World Health Organization Quality of Life—BREF when compared to those who said “no.” Respondents identifying as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color had statistically significantly lower QoL in the physical health and environment domains compared to white respondents.

Young adults with CPP experience a significantly lower QoL than those without CPP, and racial differences further widen this gap. Future research should explore coping mechanisms that could benefit young adults’ daily lives. Similar content being viewed by others Data availability Data is available at Mendeley. Graeve, Catherine; Gao, Grace; Stephenson, Vera (2024), “CPP and Quality of Life”, Mendeley Data, V1, https://doi.org/10.17632/y9sz6sgrdm.1.

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This work was funded by an Academic Excellence Grant (AEG) through the GHR Foundation. The AEG aims to improve societal health and well-being by preparing providers capable of practicing in emerging health-related environments. Funding This work was funded by an Academic Excellence Grant (AEG) through the GHR Foundation. The AEG aims to improve societal health and well-being by preparing providers capable of practicing in emerging health-related environments. Author information Authors and Affiliations Contributions CU Graeve: protocol/project development, data collection or management, data analysis, manuscript writing/editing; G Gao: protocol/project development, data collection or management, data analysis, manuscript writing/editing; VI Stephenson: protocol/project development, data collection or management, manuscript writing/editing; R Helland: protocol/project development, data collection or management, manuscript writing/editing; AD Jeffery: data analysis, manuscript writing/editing. Corresponding author Ethics declarations Conflict of interest The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. Ethical approval This study was approved by the St Catherine University Institutional Review Board. Consent to participate Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Consent to publish Consent to publish was obtained as part of the consent to participate. Additional information Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Rights and permissions Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. About this article Cite this article Graeve, C., Gao, G., Stephenson, V. et al. Impact of chronic pelvic pain on quality of life in diverse young adults. Arch Gynecol Obstet 310, 3147–3156 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-024-07783-w Received: Accepted: Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-024-07783-w