Quality of life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis under biological therapy

Abstract

Conflict of interest: noneObjective: assessing health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), before and after treatment with biological therapy. Methods: a longitudinal study, conducted from November 2010 to September 2011, with implementation of the instruments HAQ II (health assessment questionnaire) and SF-36 (medical outcomes short-from health survey). Barlett test, Anova, Friedman and paired t-test were performed for multiple extracts.Results: 30 patients were evaluated, mean age of 47.6 (SD: 12.25) years and prevalence of females (90%). The mean score of HAQ II before treatment was 1.97, with significant reduction of up to 1.23 after six months of biological therapy (p<0.01). Most of the SF-36 domains showed significant improvement after six months of treatment (p<0.01), highlighting the social aspects, pain, physical functioning, emotional issues, vitality and physical aspects. Conclusion: the use of biologic therapy in patients with RA refractory to standard therapies proved to be an important pharmacological strategy for improving HRQL.

Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Lebanese Adults: Impact on Health-Related Quality of Life

“…Our results indicate that females were more affected by RA than males. These results are similar to those from other studies that demonstrated that women are more likely to develop RA than men and it is two to three times more prevalent in women than in men [ 2 , 10 ]. Most of RA patients in our study were aged between 36 and 50 years.…”

“…Most of RA patients in our study were aged between 36 and 50 years. A study conducted in a Dutch nationwide group of 1056 patients showed that the onset of RA reaches a peak between the ages of 40 and 50 years [ 10 ].…”

“…As other chronic diseases, RA is a chronic inflammatory disabling disease with significant impact on the QOL of patients [ 5 , 9 ]. Although RA primarily affects the joints and leads to physical impairment, many patients with RA also experience psychological effects such as: depression, anxiety, feelings of helplessness, low self-esteem, loss of energy, and fatigue [ 1 , 2 , 8 , 10 ]. Pain and stiffness can last for more than 30 min in the morning or after a long period of rest.…”

Knowledge and selected variables as determinants of the quality of life and general health of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

“…[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] The lower number of points in the PCS domain in comparison to the MCS domain may indicate that RA affects more the physical than the mental sphere as indicated by other authors. 21,23,24 It was also shown that the quality of life of patients with RA depends on many factors of physical, mental and social functioning sphere.…”

“…21,23,24 It was also shown that the quality of life of patients with RA depends on many factors of physical, mental and social functioning sphere. 17,[19][20][21][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Studies conducted by many authors have shown that poorer functioning of the respondents in the physical sphere is conditioned by the duration of the disease. 18,24,26,28,30 Studies by Baloglu et al and Wisłowska et al did not confirm this dependence.…”