AN EVALUATION OF HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
Date
2011Author
Oyoo, G O
Owino, B O
Otieno, CF
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Objective: To determine Health Related Quality Of Life (HRQOL) profiles of patients with Rheumatoid
Arthritis (RA).
Design: Prospective, cross-sectional study.
Setting: Ambulatory out-patient clinics of Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), a public national referral
hospital.
Subjects: Of the 180 patients interviewed and examined, 60 met the American College of Rheumatology
(ACR) diagnostic criteria for RA.
Results: Of the 60 patients recruited, 58% of study patients had physical component HRQOL scores
ranging from poor to fair, compared to 65% who had mental component HRQOL scores ranging from
good to very good. Both physical and mental health HRQOL summary scores showed significant
negative correlations with disease activity (DAS-28) scores (p< 0.001 for both) among the study
patients. The HRQOL physical health summary scores were significantly better in the 28 study patients
who were on treatment with at least one DMARD (mean score 67.25 ± 18.17) than in the other 28 study
patients who had not been on DMARD therapy (mean score 53.93 ± 18.55), p = 0.008. The trend was
similar but less prominent with mental health QOL summary scores, with means of 75.11 ± 19.19 with
DMARDs, and 62.29 ± 21.85 without DMARDs (p = 0.034). There was a significant association between
consistency of treatment with any drug and QOL physical health summary scores, with mean score for
patients consistently on treatment (65.16 ± 19.26) being much better than for those on intermittent
drug treatment (50.94 ± 16.27), p = 0.009. These associations were similar for QOL mental health
summary scores but did not reach significance.
Conclusions: In this population of ambulatory patients with RA, physical component HRQOL ranged
from poor to fair, while mental component HRQOL ranged from good to very good in the majority
of patients. Severity of disease showed a strong negative association with HRQOL among the study
patients, while DMARD therapy and adherence to drug treatment showed a positive association with
HRQOL. Improved and better adherence to DMARD therapy with resultant decrease in disease activity
is likely to result in improved HRQOL in this population of patients with RA.
Citation
EAOJ;Vol. 5: September 2011Publisher
Department of Clinical Medicine and Therapeutics
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10378]