Dr Quality of Life of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients and its Relationship to Disease Severity in Lagos, Nigeria.

Quality of Life of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients

Abstract

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) impairs the quality of life of patients. Studies of this quality of life (QoL) impairment are few. The aim of the study was to document the QoL of SLE patients, its determinants and to correlate QoL with disease activity using the SLEDAI-2K.

Methodology: A prospective cross-sectional study of QoL was conducted on 70 SLE patients at the rheumatology clinic of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital over a 7-month period. Clinical and sociodemographic data were documented. Quality of life was assessed using the SLE quality of life instrument (SLEQOL). Activity of SLE was assessed with the SLE disease activity index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K). Data was entered and analyzed using the IBM Statistics version 22 and a p-value <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 35.0 ±11.8 years and 98.6% were female. The mean duration of SLE was 3.6±3.3 years. Systemic Lupus erythematosus as depicted by SLEDAI-2K ≥ 6 was active in 87.1% with a mean SLEDAI-2K of 8.6± 7.6. SLE Activity was ≤6 in 36(51.4%) and ≥6 in 34(48.6%). Quality of life was impaired in 98.6% of the patients. SLEQOL scores ranged from 40-214 and median (IQR) SLEQOL was 84(57,130). None of the sociodemographic and clinical factors were significantly associated with QoL impairment and there was no correlation between SLE activity and quality of life impairment.

Conclusion: Quality of life is impaired by SLE. However, this QoL impairment is independent of sociodemographic, clinical factors and SLE activity