Health-related quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis: comparison of RAQoL with other scales in terms of disease activity, severity of pain, and functional status

Abstract

Quality of life (QoL) is the gratification taken from life, happiness, and the way human beings perceive their situation within the system of culture and values. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is among the main conditions in which QoL is decreased. The aim of this study was to evaluate QoL and related variables in patients with RA. A total of 153 RA patients were included in the study. All patients were evaluated by the rheumatoid arthritis quality of life (RAQoL), Nottingham health profile (NHP), and the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) scales. Disease activity score 28 (DAS28) was used for measuring disease activity, while the modified Sharp score developed by Van der Heijde was used for evaluating the radiological damage, and visual analog scale-pain (VAS-pain) was used to determine the level of pain. RAQoL had linear relations at high levels with VAS-pain, HAQ, DAS28, and the modified Sharp score (r values 0.86, 0.82, 0.82, and 0.38, respectively) and at a moderate level with disease duration (r 0.18). VAS-pain showed the highest correlation with the pain subgroup of NHP (r 0.91) and the second highest correlation was with RAQoL (r 0.86). As a result, it is concluded that in RA patients RAQoL is an important scale reflecting QoL related with pain, disease activity, functional status, and radiological progression. In our study pain ranked first among the variables that influenced QoL, and this was followed by disease activity and functional status.