Psychological variables and quality of life in women with endometriosis.

Background: Endometriosis is a common gynecological condition which has been found to have a detrimental impact upon women's quality of life (QoL). This study investigated the impact of pain self-efficacy, health locus of control (HLOC), coping style and illness uncertainty on QoL in women with endometriosis.

Method: Two hundred and thirty women completed online questionnaires. Standard multiple regressions assessed the relationship between the psychological predictors and QoL.

Results: The psychological variables accounted for a statistically significant proportion of the variance (p < .0005) in scores across the four QoL domains. The model accounted for 55, 26, 10 and 32% of the scores in physical, psychological, social and environmental QoL domains, respectively. Pain self-efficacy made the largest unique contribution, followed by illness uncertainty.

Conclusions: Women's perception of their ability to manage their pain and how uncertain they felt about their condition, were important factors in QoL, particularly in the physical domain.