Health-Related Quality of Life in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Its Relationship With Disease Activity: A Single-Center Cross-Sectional Study From Pakistan

Abstract

This study aims to determine whether disease activity was associated with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in the Pakistani population with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted in the Rheumatology Department of the National Hospital & Medical Centre, Lahore, Pakistan, from April 2021 to June 2022. A sample of 60 patients, both male and female, diagnosed with a case of SLE was collected through the purposive sampling technique. The data were collected through a questionnaire in which the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) was applied to assess age at diagnosis, duration, and activity of SLE. HRQoL was evaluated using the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus-Specific Quality of Life (SLEQOL) questionnaire. A seven-digit Likert scale was developed to apply the Student's t-test. The Pearson test was applied to demographic variables. ResultsThe mean age of the participants was 32.63 ± 11.12 years. The mean SLEDAI score was 5.30 ± 4.96, ranging from 0 to 17. The mean SLEQOL score was 106.2 ± 33.60, with scores ranging from 47 to 199. There was a significant positive correlation between the SLEDAI score and the overall SLEQOL score (r = 0.376, p = 0.003). Significant correlations were also observed between the SLEDAI score and the subdomains of Physical Functioning (r = 0.341, p = 0.008), Activities (r = 0.478, p < 0.001), Symptoms (r = 0.326, p = 0.011), Treatment (r = 0.262, p = 0.044), and Mood (r = 0.297, p = 0.021). No significant correlation was found between the SLEDAI score and the Self-Image subdomain (r = 0.081, p = 0.541). ConclusionHigh levels of disease, especially fever, pain, and fatigue, cause many obstacles in maintaining life and never help in better understanding the quality of life in terms of physical, psychological, and environmental domains.