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Juvenile arthritis showed detrimental effect on health-related quality of life after 30 years
There was a detrimental effect of juvenile idiopathic arthritis on health-related quality of life after 30-year follow-up, according to a recently published study.
“We found [juvenile idiopathic arthritis] to have a detrimental effect on physical [health-related quality of life] HRQoL 30 years after disease onset, even among patients in clinical remission,” Anita Tollisen, RN, MNSc, from Oslo University Hospital, and colleagues wrote. “Physical disabilities, pain, fatigue, low wellbeing and receiving disability or social living allowance explained a significant amount of the variation in reduced physical HRQoL.”
Researchers assessed 176 patients with the Health assessment questionnaire disability index (HAQ-DI), VAS and SF-36 after 23 years and 30 years. Patients with active disease after 15 years were examined again at 30 years and matched with controls.
After 30 years, 47% of patients had a HAQ-DI of less than zero and the median VAS was 0.6. In addition, patients had a reduced physical component summary (PCS) scores compared with controls, which was also true for patients with and without clinical remission. Furthermore, patients had worse scores on all SF-36 subscales, with the exception of mental health. Between 15 years and 30 years, PCS scores significantly declined. Correlates of reduced PCS included reduced HAQ-DI, VAS pain, patient’s global assessment of wellbeing scores, and receiving disability and social living allowance at 30 years.
“However, it must be noted that patients in this cohort were diagnosed 30 years ago before the initiation of biologic therapy and that only 26% of these patients had used [methotrexate] MTX at 15-year follow-up,” the researchers wrote. “Further longitudinal studies are required to explore the effect of new treatment regimens on patient-reported outcomes.” – by Will Offit
Reference: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.