THU0648 WORK DISABILITY IN A PERUVIAN COHORT OF SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS PATIENTS

Abstract

Background: Work disability in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is common but the factors associated with it in Low and Middle Income Countries have been scarcely evaluated(1). Objectives: To determine the prevalence of and the factors associated with work disability in SLE patients. Methods: We studied 239 consecutive (1997 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria) patients from a Peruvian SLE cohort from October 2017 to December 2018. Work disability was measured from a single self-report questionnaire. Data were collected and included sociodemographic information, clinical lupus features including disease activity [Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000 update (SLEDAI-2K)], damage [Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index (SDI)], as well as Health-Related Quality of Life (LupusQoL), and medication use. Work disability was defined by patients’ self-report of not being able to work because of SLE. Univariable analysis comparing those patients with work disability and those who remained working were performed with the Mann Whitney U test for continuous variables and the Chi-square test for dichotomous variables. For the multivariable analyses, binary logistic regression with backward elimination was used to determine which factors remained associated with work disability. Results: Of 239 patients, 194 patients were working at least for at least some time since diagnosis, 181 (93.0%) were female, they had a mean age at diagnosis of 34.5 (12.3) years, and a mean disease duration of 11.5 (7.4) years, their mean SLEDAI was 2.53 (3.7) and their mean SDI was 1.2 (1.5). Twenty-eight patients changed their activities at work due to SLE and 51 (26.6%) stopped working after their diagnosis; 21 of them (41.1%) stopped working because of SLE. One hundred and forty-three were working at the time of the evaluation. In the multivariate analyses, those work- disabled due to SLE were more likely to have higher SDI: OR=1.650 (CI95%: 1.134-2.403) p=0.009, and lower HRQoL in two domains, planning: OR=0.975 (CI 95%: 0.954-0.996) p=0.020 and body image OR=0.977 (CI95%: 0.956, 0.998), p=0.032. Conclusion: Work disability due to SLE is associated with higher damage accrual and a poorer HRQoL.