Poor quality of life in indian ankylosing spondylitis patients

Background: Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease that leads to significant disability. We sought to study the impact of the disease activity and functional impairment on QoL in Indian patients with AS. Methods: World Health Organization- Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQoL-BREF) questionnaire was used to measure quality of life (QoL) in 99 adults with AS (modified Rome criteria), 72 healthy individuals, and 20 rheumatoid arthritis patients. Apart from demographic variable such as age, gender, clinical manifestations, and treatment received, disease activity parameters such as duration of early morning stiffness, BASDAI, swollen and tender joint count, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) and C Reactive Protein (CRP) were also recorded. Presence of damage was assessed using spinal radiographs. All values are in median (IQR). Results: Out of the 99 patients, 5 were females and 5 had juvenile onset AS. Median age was 32 (26-42) years and median disease duration was 6 (1.25-10) years. Forty-three had peripheral arthritis and 18 had enthesitis. Syndesmophytes were present on spinal radiographs in 54 cases. BASDAI correlated negatively with the physical, psychological and environmental domains (P < 0.05), while BASFI and BASMI did not. In all 4 domains of WHO-BREF, scores for AS were significantly less as compared to healthy controls [P < 0.0001] or even to rheumatoid arthritis [P < 0.01]. Conclusion: Indian AS patients have poorer quality of life than patients with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy individuals, possibly due to poor control of disease activity