Self-esteem, quality of life, and physical activity in women with diagnosed endometriosis: a pilot study in an Italian sample

Antonino Bianco, Ambra Gentile, Marzia Russo, Antonio Maiorana, Gioacchino Lavanco, Arianna Mellina, Antonio Palma
In: Human Movement · 2021 · vol. 22(4) , pp. 93–97 · doi:10.5114/hm.2021.103295 · W3157316409
article OA: diamond CC0 ⤵ 2 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View at publisher

Abstract

Purpose Endometriosis is a painful pathology impairing women’s daily life. Several studies have shown that patients report low mental and physical quality of life, but no general evaluation of their self-esteem has been found. Studies concerning physical activity frequency present inconsistent results. Therefore, the current paper aims to compare life quality and selfesteem in women with endometriosis with the Italian normative data of the measures used. Methods Overall, 36 women with diagnosed endometriosis treated in hospital completed a questionnaire detecting physical activity frequency, self-esteem, quality of life, and socioeconomic information. One sample t-test served to compare the data from this particular group with those of the general Italian population. Results The participants displayed higher self-esteem (t = 5.65, p < 0.001) and a good quality of life (physical functioning: t = 3.64, p < 0.001), except for fatigue (t = –3.24, p = 0.003; significant difference); they declared feeling more fatigue than the general population. Only 4 women (11%) reported regular physical activity, while 16 were smokers (44.4%, mean: 10.6 cigarettes/day). Conclusions Women with diagnosed endometriosis presented higher self-esteem and normal quality of life, even though their general health was lower and fatigue was higher than in the general Italian population. However, the sample involved females of low socioeconomic status and low education, characterized by poor communication skills and not open to externalize their feelings. Therefore, they might not have been honest in their answers. This potential bias, together with the small sample size, will be addressed in future research.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

Citation neighborhood

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.

References (15)

Cited by (2)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK