Health-related quality of life in portuguese SLE patients: an outcome measure independent of disease activity and cumulative damage.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate quality of life in Portuguese patients with Systemic Lupus Erithematosus (SLE) and its correlation with disease activity and cumulative damage.


METHODS
We included consecutive SLE patients, fulfilling the 1997 ACR Classification Criteria for SLE and followed at the Rheumatology Department of the University Hospital of Coimbra, Portugal at time of visit to the outpatient clinic. Quality of life was evaluated using the patient self-assessment questionnaire Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form-36 (SF-36) (validated Portuguese version). The consulting rheumatologist fulfilled the SLE associated indexes for cumulative damage (Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics- Damage Index: SLICC/ACR-DI) and disease activity (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index: SLEDAI 2000). Correlation between SLEDAI and SLICC and SF-36 was tested with the Spearman Coefficient. Significant level considered was 0.05.


RESULTS
The study included 133 SLE patients (90.2% female, mean age - 40.7 years, mean disease duration - 8.7 years). Most patients presented low disease activity (mean SLEDAI = 4.23) and limited cumulative damage (mean SLICC = 0.76). Despite that, SF-36 mean scores were below 70% in all eight domains of the index. Physical function domains showed lower scores than mental function domains. The QoL in this group of patients is significantly impaired when compared with the reference Portuguese population (p<0.05 in all domains). There was no correlation between clinical activity or cumulative damage and quality of life.


CONCLUSIONS
QoL is significantly compromised in this group of SLE patients, but not related with disease activity or damage. These findings suggest that disease activity, cumulative damage and QoL are independent outcome measures and should all be used to assess the full impact of disease in SLE patients.
Rheumatology Department, University Hospital of Coimbra, Portugal. catiacmduarte@gmail.com
Cátia
C
Duarte
Pedro
P
Abreu
Maura
M
Couto
Cláudia
C
Vaz
Armando
A
Malcata
Luís
L
Inês
D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011174:Portugal; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index