Assessing quality of life among sample of iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the common chronic disease, which lead to great disability and chronic pain, and has a main adverse economic and social effect upon patients. The reason for the addition of quality of life as a pointer for health outcome result is attributed to the affectability of this measure for the evaluation of patient's health status after taken treatment and its health outcome. The purpose of the current study was to assess quality of life among a sample of Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis and to determine the possible association between health’s related quality of life and some patient-certain factors. This study is a cross-sectional study carried out on 250 already diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis patients who attended Baghdad Teaching Hospital/Medical City/Rheumatology department. The mean age of the patients was (50.8 ± 13.1 years). The Arabic version of the (WHOQOL-BREF) Questionnaire was used to measure Quality of life. The results of the current study showed that rheumatoid arthritis has a significant effect on the quality of life of patients. The mean of the total quality of life score was 46.9 ± 9.7.  Older age was associated with the reduced psychological and environmental score. Female patients had high physical and psychological score compared to male patients. Higher education levels worked patients directly predict the elevated quality of life score. High disease activity associated with low quality of life score. Future studies should investigate how interventional approaches addressing these predictors may lead to improve quality of life among rheumatoid arthritis patients and their impression on disease control.