title: Factors predictive of overall health over the course of the disease in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus from the LUMINA cohort (LXII): use of the SF-6D.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Health related quality of life (HRQOL) over course of the disease was ascertained in SLE patients from LUMINA, a multiethnic US cohort, using the SF-36-derived utility measure, the SF-6D.
  
  
  METHODS
  All available visits were examined to predict HRQOL using either variables from the baseline or enrollment visits or from the preceding visits. The physical and mental component summary (PCS and MCS, respectively) measures of the SF-36 were also examined. A total of 2662 visits from 588 SLE patients were included; 90% of the patients were women, 19% Hispanic-Texans, 17% Hispanic-Puerto Ricans, 35% African Americans and 29% Caucasians. The patients' mean (SD) SF-6D was 0.6 (0.1).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In multivariable analyses, Hispanic-Texan ethnicity and higher levels of social support were predictors of HRQOL whereas older age, poverty, greater disease activity and damage and higher levels of fatigue, helplessness and abnormal illness-related behaviors were negative predictors. Prior SF-6D was the strongest variable predictive of subsequent HRQOL, when included. The analyses in which the PCS and MCS were examined as end-points were, overall, consistent with the SF-6D results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that the SF-6D index provides an adequate measure of self-perceived HRQOL and that patients' self-perception of HRQOL is influenced by disease and non-disease related factors.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: McGwin
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Durán
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Reveille
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Vilá
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Alarcón