Health-related QoL, functional disability scores worse for older patients, and females versus males
THURSDAY, Nov. 10, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Higher disease activity score (DAS) is one of the most influential factors for poor patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a study published online Nov. 5 in the International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases.
Sang-Cheol Bae, M.D., Ph.D., from the Hanyang University Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues enrolled 2,000 RA patients aged >20 years and treated with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs for at least six months. The authors measured health-related quality of life (HRQoL) using the EuroQoL 5D (EQ-5D) and functional disability using the Korean Health Assessment Questionnaire (KHAQ). The correlation between patient characteristics and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) was assessed.
The researchers found that the mean EQ-5D index score was 0.6 ± 0.28 and the mean KHAQ score was 0.7 ± 0.67. Average HRQoL and functional disability scores seemed to be worse in patients with older versus younger age, and in females versus males, in multivariate analysis (both P < 0.001). Patients with moderate and highest DAS had worse outcome measures than patients with lower DAS (P < 0.001).
“In this study, higher DAS was one of the most influential factors for poor PROs among all other factors,” the authors write. “Therefore, we could suggest appropriate treatment approaches according to DAS along with other significantly associated factors with PROs in the early stage of RA.”
Two authors are employed by Pfizer, which funded the study.
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