Health-related quality of life assessed by Gout Impact Scale (GIS) in Chinese patients with gout

Abstract

Objective The Gout Impact Scale (GIS) is a disease-specific health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) measurement for patients with gout. This study aimed to investigate the quality of life in Chinese patients with gout and potential risk factors for poorer HR-QoL by GIS. Methods Adults with gout from February 2017 to February 2019 were invited to complete a questionnaire containing the GIS, social demographic characteristics, clinical information and gout-specific questions. Pearson/Spearman correlation and linear regression were used to analyze the data. Results A total of 413 patients were included in the analysis (mean age, 51.85 years; 96.4% male). The mean (SD) score of GIS total was 56.79 ± 15.45. Worse gout-specific HR-QoL was associated with anxiety (p < .05), depression (p < .05) and fatigue (p < .05). The effectiveness and global satisfaction of Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM) were negatively related to each dimension of GIS. Age (B = −0.251, p = .013), fatigue (B = 1.850, p < .001) and depression (B = 9.068, p = .042) were independent predictors of GIS total score. Conclusion Gout-specific HR-QoL is impaired by social demographic and clinical characteristics, highlighting the importance of psychological factors (fatigue and depression) and patient-reported outcomes (patients’ satisfaction and confidence in gout treatment). These findings suggest that more studies should focus on disease-specific HR-QoL.