Quality of Life and It's Relation to Disease Activity in Egyptian Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Professor, Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, Tanta University, Egypt.

2 Public Health & Community Medicine, Tanta University

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present work is to study the effect of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus( SLE) and its activity on the quality of life in SLE patients. Subjects and Methods: In this study, we investigated One Hundred SLE patients as regards disease activity and its impact on the quality of life (QoL). Disease activity was measured by SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI), and quality of life was measured by Short Form–36 health questionnaire (SF-36). Results: Mucocutaneous, hematological and renal manifestations were present in most of the patients and arthritis in 20% . Participants with mild to moderate activity represented 47% of the SLE population in our study and 25% had severe activity. No activity was present in 28%. All domains of SF-36 were found lower in SLE patients with correlation of some domains with disease activity measured by SLEDI. This correlation was found significant with physical functioning component, role limitation due to physical health and role limitation due to emotional problems and pain. Conclusion: Physical and emotional domains of QoL are impaired to a larger extent in active lupus. However, social, environmental QoL don't correlate with the disease activity status in lupus patients. These findings may provide useful information to improve our understanding and provide better support to SLE patients beside rapid meticulous control of disease activity.

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