Health-related quality of life outcomes of women after thyroid surgery as measured by SF-36, an experience from a developing country: a comparative cross-sectional study

Introduction: Thyroid surgeries are among the commonly practiced procedures worldwide. These can be done for benign and malignant thyroid pathologies that disproportionately affect women. Excellent survival rates have been achieved for different thyroid cases. This has led to a shift from researching traditional treatment outcome measures, such as morbidity and mortality to patients’ quality of life. However, such studies are largely limited to Western settings. The main objective of this study was to explore the health-related quality of life outcomes (Hr-QoL) outcomes of post-thyroidectomy cases. Methods and patients: A cross-sectional study was done to compare the Hr-QoL outcomes (measured by SF-36) of women in three study groups: post-total thyroidectomy, post-partial thyroidectomy, and controls. The data were analyzed using SPSS Windows version 21. The Hr-QoL outcomes on a 0–100 scale were compared among the three groups using the Kruskal-Wallis H test at a P -value ≤ 0.05. Results: A total of 318 women (106 in each group) were included in the analysis. Post-total thyroidectomy participants, compared to controls had statistically significantly lower median scores in their General Health ( P = 0.001), Vitality ( P < 0.001), Role-Emotional ( P < 0.001), and Mental Health ( P = 0.001). Similarly, post-partial thyroidectomy cases had significantly lower median scores in Vitality, Role-Emotional, and Mental Health than controls. Physical Functioning, Role-Physical, Bodily Pain, and Social Functioning were similar among the three groups. Conclusion: Thyroidectomy reduces quality of life. It affected the mental health status of the participants more significantly than their physical health. Integrating mental health services with routine surgical treatment may improve the quality of life of post-thyroid surgery clients.