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I can’t clarify. I only took one course, 30 years ago, in the use of statistics to assess validity of survey data. Some of the background data and references are more informative…
“Recent evidence indicates that 3% to 6% of patients will have severe pain, and up to 31% will have chronic pain after inguinal hernia repair.15-18”
That paper is from 2008 though. There must be more current information out there. You have the most validity in asking questions, since you are planning for a repair. I hope that you do talk to some of the authors and that they’re willing to share. Actually, I hope that they follow this forum and will jump in with some clarification and new results. That would be fantastic.
I also have been around several other forums and have found that many people start recommending that everyone get surgery, based, apparently, on their surviving the surgery itself, and the fact that the surgery was not as bad as they expected. There are very few people who report anything, good or bad, after more than six months. Most people just talk about the healing from the surgery itself. Which is one of the psychological deceptions of the repair – the surgery itself knocks you down so far that you’re just happy to be able to walk again, and forget about why you did it in the first place.
Anyway, carry on and good luck. This thread started with a great question. One question that a person might ask a potential surgeon is whether or not they have recent survey results from their own patients.