[Health related quality of life assessment in patients with systemic sclerosis].
OBJECTIVE
Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), a chronic disabling disease associated to physical and psychological impairment, is often left behind in clinical practice and research. This is due to the use of tools that are not complete or mainly designed for the physical condition only. We tested EQ-5D, a valid, simple and brief questionnaire for HRQoL that has never been validated in SSc.


METHODS
Thirty-three consecutive SSc patients referring to our Rheumatology Department and undergoing treatment have been asked to fulfill EQ-5D together with HAQ.


RESULTS
EQ-5D demonstrated good acceptability, feasibility and validity in patients affected by SSc. Conceptually equivalent domains of EQ-5D demonstrated a good correlation with HAQ correspondent domains.


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest the use of EQ-5D in SSc patients as a HRQoL measure in clinical practice, as well as an out come parameter in randomized clinical trials and/or in pharmaco-economic evaluations.
Istituto G. Pini, Divisione di Reumatologia, Istituto Auxologico IRCCS, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italia. roberta.gualtierotti@studenti.unimi.it
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Gualtierotti
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Scalone
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Ingegnoli
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Cortesi
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Lubatti
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Zeni
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Meroni
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001363:Awards and Prizes; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012219:Rheumatology; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires