Figure 3.

Quality-of-life (QoL) scores in a French general population cohort versus patients with herpes zoster (HZ) or post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) (Leplège, unpublished data; adapted from Figure 2 in Chidiac 2001 [38]). The French general population cohort comprised healthy individuals and individuals with various chronic diseases (n = 3656). Average Short-Form-36 (SF-36) scores (eight domains) were calculated for the general French population and for patients with acute HZ, HZ-related complications, and PHN. The differences in scores between each patient group and the general French population are presented. Patients with HZ and PHN have poorer QoL scores than the general-population group. Clinically meaningful differences (scores below -0.5) are observed for some domains in patients with HZ, and for all domains in patients with complicated HZ or PHN. All three groups of patients scored low for the SF-36 domains of vitality and mental health.