Abstract
Understanding the impact of the disease on quality of life is crucial in patient management. In this cross-sectional study, general and oral health-related quality of life questionnaires, and thorough examinations of oral and ocular dryness were performed in age- and sex-matched patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS group), non-Sjögren’s syndrome sicca (non-SS group) and healthy controls. General and oral health-related quality of life were investigated with the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey and the 14-Item Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaires, respectively. Subjective symptoms of xerostomia and ocular dryness were recorded using the Summated Xerostomia Inventory and Ocular Surface Disease Index, respectively. Clinical examinations included evaluation of clinical oral dryness scores, candida counts, unstimulated and stimulated saliva secretory rates, tear osmolarity, tear film break-up time, Schirmer I test and ocular surface staining. Both patient groups had pronounced signs and symptoms of xerostomia and ocular dryness. Even though the non-SS patients had less severe clinical signs than the pSS patients, they demonstrated much poorer general and oral health-related quality of life. In conclusion, non-SS patients require more attention in order to improve their quality of life.
Highlights
Understanding the impact of the disease on quality of life is crucial in patient management
An overview of medication use in the three groups is given in Appendix 1 and shows that the only statistically significant difference between the patient groups was that a greater percentage of the non-s syndrome (SS) patients used hypnotics and sedatives; 27% of the non-SS patients vs 5% of primary SS (pSS) patients (p = 0.04)
The present study demonstrates that the patients with pSS had significantly reduced quality of life (QoL), and that patients with non-SS sicca had even more reduced QoL than patients with pSS
Summary
Understanding the impact of the disease on quality of life is crucial in patient management In this cross-sectional study, general and oral health-related quality of life questionnaires, and thorough examinations of oral and ocular dryness were performed in age- and sex-matched patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS group), non-Sjögren’s syndrome sicca (non-SS group) and healthy controls. Clinical examinations included evaluation of clinical oral dryness scores, candida counts, unstimulated and stimulated saliva secretory rates, tear osmolarity, tear film break-up time, Schirmer I test and ocular surface staining Both patient groups had pronounced signs and symptoms of xerostomia and ocular dryness. We have previously shown a comparatively high symptom burden in non-SS as compared to pSS patients, despite more pronounced clinical findings in the pSS patients[20] Studies on both general health-related QoL (GHRQoL) and oral health-related QoL (OHRQoL), comparing patients with pSS and non-SS, are of paramount importance for achieving overall understanding of the disease burden of patients with non-SS. We explored correlations between QoL and subjective and clinical findings of oral and ocular dryness
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