Objective: The purpose of this study was to document the burden of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in comparison to the U.S. general population and specific chronic health conditions.
Methods: The disease burden that PMDD placed on HRQoL was estimated by comparing SF-12v2 scores between women who were identified as being at risk for PMDD with those observed in the general U.S. female population. Additional comparisons were made to several chronic health conditions. Regression methods were used to estimate SF-12v2 normative values from the general population sample and statistically adjust them to match age and the presence of disease comorbidity of the PMDD patient group. Significance tests were used to compare the means across samples.
Results: After adjusting for multiple comparisons, six SF-12v2 scales and two summary measures of PMDD were significantly below the adjusted U.S. general population norms. Both summary measures of PMDD had mean differences greater than 3 points below the norm (threshold for clinical meaningful difference). The burden of PMDD was greater on mental/emotional HRQoL domains than on physical HRQoL. The HRQoL burden of PMDD was (1) greater than that of chronic back pain in bodily pain and mental health (MH) scales and greater than type 2 diabetes and hypertension in bodily pain scale while comparable in all other scales of the three conditions, (2) comparable to osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis in all scales, and (3) less burden than depression in vitality and MH scales and mental component summary measure while comparable in other scales.
Conclusions: PMDD is associated with substantial burden on both physical and mental aspects of HRQoL.