HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS IN LAHORE, PAKISTAN

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the health-related quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Methods: This was a cross sectional case series that involves 196 subjects according to inclusion exclusion criteria. The data was analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 and same software was used for data analysis. The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) has become one of the foremost self-reported questionnaires for determining functional state in many disease areas. The EQ‐5D is a legal and consistent measure in many disease areas. The EQ‐5D includes the five dimensions of health: mobility, self‐care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression, based on levels. This scale is numbered from 0-100. “0” indicates worse condition and “100” indicates best health condition.

Results: By the use of Chi-square test (2.047) the HAQ in male is 34 (>0.5) and 16 (<0.5) and in female is 114 (>0.5) and 32 (<0.5) having 0.152 p value. By applying T test (-2.655) the EQ-5D vs gender had 50 males with mean (1.6400±0.88) and 146 females with mean (1.9740±0.72)

Conclusion: Rheumatoid arthritis has substantial impression on quality of life and functional capacity being the diminishing of health-related quality of life enormous when compared to general population. The lower health related quality of life and functional capacity is associated with higher disease activity levels and diminution appears to be a desirable state also from patient standpoint.

Key Words: Rheumatoid arthritis, quality of life,     EQ_5D, HAQ