title: Fibromyalgia has a larger impact on physical health than on psychological health, yet both are markedly affected: the al-Ándalus project.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize a representative sample of fibromyalgia women based on a set of relevant factors known to be related to this disease. To distinguish specific factors of the disease from other symptoms that might also exist in non-fibromyalgia women. To test whether fibromyalgia affects more severely physical or psychological outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 459 fibromyalgia women vs. 214 non-fibromyalgia (control) women from Southern Spain (Andalusia) took part in this cross-sectional study. Several instruments were used to assess tenderness, impact of fibromyalgia, fatigue, health-related quality of life, mental health, and cognitive performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, fibromyalgia women showed a worse status in pain, fatigue, health-related quality of life, depression, and anxiety than controls (P < 0.01). In general, the observed associations presented very large effect sizes (Cohen׳s d from ~1 to ~5.5). No differences between fibromyalgia and controls were observed in cognitive and memory performance, except for delayed recall, but the observed effect size was low (~0.25). The effect size observed for the global physical component (~3.3) was larger than that for the global psychological component (~1.3), all P < 0.001.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results reinforce the understanding of fibromyalgia as a polysymptomatic distress condition with pain as its main symptom. Our findings support that fibromyalgia seems to have a greater impact on physical than on psychological outcomes, though both are largely affected.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain. Electronic address: vsegura@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Víctor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Segura-Jiménez
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Inmaculada C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Álvarez-Gallardo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carbonell-Baeza
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Virginia A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Aparicio
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Ortega
authors.affiliation: Department of Didactics for Language and Literature, Social Science and Physical and Sports Education, University of Almería, Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Casimiro
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delgado-Fernández
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005221:Fatigue / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010146:Pain / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Cognitive performance; Health-related quality of life; Impact of fibromyalgia; Mental health; Tenderness; Women