Table 2.

Health-related quality of life (SF-36 questionnaire) in participants completing final assessment.

SF-36 Domains	Placebo (n = 26)	Mel-Zinc (n = 24)	p-Value 1
Physical functioning
Baseline	23.96 ± 3.84	22.92 ± 3.43	0.893
8 weeks	26.04 ± 4.15	21.04 ± 3.24	0.534
16 weeks	21.75 ± 3.84	26.09 ± 3.46	0.316
4 weeks post-treatment	26.14 ± 4.21	19.77 ± 3.29 *	0.421
Physical role functioning
Baseline	0.00 ± 0.00	1.04 ± 1.02	0.298
8 weeks	6.00 ± 2.99	1.09 ± 1.04	0.179
16 weeks	3.41 ± 3.20	8.70 ± 5.14	0.323
4 weeks post-treatment	2.08 ± 1.41	4.35 ± 3.25	0.930
Bodily pain
Baseline	14.35 ± 3.36	13.50 ± 2.75	0.848
8 weeks	20.08 ± 3.72 *	16.79 ± 2.52	0.797
16 weeks	17.35 ± 3.14	17.22 ± 3.41	0.847
4 weeks post-treatment	15.17 ± 3.33	13.78 ± 2.26	0.886
General health perception
Baseline	14.50 ± 2.64	22.91 ± 2.23	0.015
8 weeks	21.23 ± 4.12 *	24.04 ± 2.98	0.197
16 weeks	15.55 ± 3.33	25.77 ± 3.29	0.017
4 weeks post-treatment	19.18 ± 3.29	22.05 ± 2.89	0.308
Vitality
Baseline	18.59 ± 4.57	12.99 ± 2.83	0.678
8 weeks	23.40 ± 5.00	15.83 ± 3.81	0.370
16 weeks	16.01 ± 4.19	19.28 ± 4.65	0.482
4 weeks post-treatment	20.00 ± 4.79	18.64 ± 4.47	0.935
Social role functioning
Baseline	32.69 ± 6.00	28.65 ± 3.57	0.835
8 weeks	41.35 ± 5.33 *	29.69 ± 3.89	0.154
16 weeks	31.52 ± 4.99	34.24 ± 4.14	0.488
4 weeks post-treatment	35.94 ± 6.48	32.07 ± 4.87	0.838
Emotional role functioning
Baseline	46.15 ± 9.06	42.03 ± 8.81	0.790
8 weeks	41.03 ± 9.67	25.76 ± 7.68 *	0.403
16 weeks	46.97 ± 10.01	36.23 ± 8.74	0.507
4 weeks post-treatment	43.06 ± 9.92	28.99 ± 8.60	0.304
Mental health status
Baseline	48.00 ± 4.26	47.63 ± 3.27	0.815
8 weeks	50.15 ± 4.93	45.13 ± 3.44	0.553
16 weeks	47.43 ± 4.14	50.43 ± 3.82	0.447
4 weeks post-treatment	47.91 ± 4.63	40.91 ± 3.78 **	0.368
Physical component summary
Baseline	20.77 ± 1.14	22.53 ± 1.00	0.210
8 weeks	24.48 ± 1.30 **	24.25 ± 1.16 *	0.856
16 weeks	21.29 ± 1.58	25.12 ± 1.20 *	0.070
4 weeks post-treatment	22.85 ± 1.21	24.38 ± 1.21	0.335
Mental component summary
Baseline	38.76 ± 2.66	35.94 ± 2.10	0.455
8 weeks	38.14 ± 2.85	33.61 ± 2.04	0.329
16 weeks	37.33 ± 2.83	35.95 ± 2.40	0.778
4 weeks post-treatment	38.52 ± 2.95	32.55 ± 2.55	0.201

Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM and compared by a paired Student’s t-test, where appropriate, for intragroup analysis, and by a Wilcoxon’s signed rank test for intergroup analysis. The significance threshold was set at * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01. Abbreviations: Mel-Zinc, Melatonin plus Zinc group; SF-36, 36-item short-form health survey. Higher scores indicate better health-related quality of life. ¹ p-values for between-group analysis.