An evaluation of health related quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

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