Clinical, psychological features and quality of life of fibromyalgia patients: a cross-sectional study of Chinese sample

This study aimed to determine the clinical, psychological features, and quality of life in Chinese fibromyalgia (FM) patients who fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2010 FM classification criteria at initial diagnosis. A cross-sectional study was carried out in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital. A hundred and seven Chinese FM patients (86 females, 21 males) were included. Eighty-six patients completed the questionnaires. Descriptive, differences, and correlation analyses were performed. The results showed that Chinese FM patients started their diseases at a median age of 37 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 1:4.1. Most patients were diagnosed about 2 years after symptoms onset. Nearly 60 % (59.81%) patients had less than college education, 58.88% did not have a full-time job, and 41.12% had low-back pain. Out of 86 patients, 58 (67.4%) had anxiety and 75 (87.2%) had depression. FM patients had poor quality of life in each aspect and deficient social support. The level of pain for the past 7 days was strongly correlated with patient global impression of severity (PGI-S; r = 0.651, p < 0.001) and patient global impression of bother (PGI-B; r = 0.628, p < 0.001). PGI-B was correlated with seven subscales of short-form health survey (SF-36). The study demonstrated the clinical, psychological features of Chinese patients. The diagnosis was delayed for about 2 years. Most of the patients had anxiety and depression, had poor quality of life, and lacked proper social support. PGI-B might be a simple measurement to evaluate patients’ quality of life.