Health-related quality of life among patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Among aims in treatment of RA one of the crucial aims is health improvement in physical, social and emotional areas. The comprehensive approach to treatment of patients with RA takes into consideration the proper care of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) according to presence of RA, its complications, and applied treatment. The purpose of this study is to analyse HRQoL among patients hospitalized because of RA exacerbation and their relations to RA complications, comorbidities, and biochemical factors. The study comprised 51 RA patients: 42 women, 9 men. The mean age of the patients was 62.5 years (SD 12.6). HRQoL analysis was performed using SF-36, a survey of known and confirmed high psychometric value. The study results showed statistically significant correlations of some HRQoL dimensions with demographic (age, sex), clinical (coronary artery disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, osteoporotic fractures, neo­plasms), and biochemical (ESR, CRP, GFR, Hb, plasma albumin, plasma protein) parameters and the VAS scale. There were no significant correlations among HRQoL measurements, presence of diabetes, plasma protein levels and value of DAS28. An additional study was performed to evaluate the psychometric value of the SF-36 survey (reliability). The results confirmed good reliability and validity of SF-36 and its accuracy in evaluation of HRQoL in patients with RA. The study results may be helpful in further HRQoL studies and in therapeutic decisions concerning quality of life improvement