Presented at the 2012 AAPM Annual Meeting « Back

Pain, Disability, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Yi-Shiung Horng, MSc, d97841001@ntu.edu.tw¹, Ming-Chuan Lin¹, (1) Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Taipei Branch, Xindian District, New Taipei City, Taiwan

Introduction: The aim of this study was (1) to compare the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and disability status between the patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and healthy controls, and (2) to explore the determinants of HRQOL. Materials and Methods: The patients with CTS and age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers were consecutively recruited from a community hospital with the approval of the Institutional Review Board. They were asked to fill out the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) Questionnaire and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) to measure the disability status and HRQOL. Pain intensity and satisfaction of HRQOL were rated by using visual analog scales. Results: Seventy-three patients with CTS and 53 healthy controls were consecutively recruited. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences between the patients and healthy controls in pain intensity, the DASH scale, the physical, psychological, and environmental domains of WHOQOL-BREF, and sat-HRQOL. After adjusted for age, educational level, employed status, marital status, familial income, and pain intensity, multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the DASH scale was the only significant determinant of HRQOL. Conclusions: The HRQOL in patients with CTS was significantly worse than healthy controls and the level of HRQOL was very dependent on patients’ disability status. Thus, further intervention should not only focus on symptoms relief, but should also emphasize functional training in order to improve their disability status. Key words: carpal tunnel syndrome, disability, health-related quality of life.

Funding: This study is mainly supported by a grant of Tzu Chi General Hospital, Taipei Branch (TCRD-TPE-97-19) and partially supported by a grant from the National Science Council, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (NSC98-2314-B-303-008-MY2).