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Evaluation of disease-specific quality of life and its influencing factors in Bulgarian patients with Graves’ orbitopathy

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Abstract

Purpose

Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) profoundly affects patients’ quality of life (QoL). Our aim was to assess QoL in patients with different forms of GO and to search for predictors of QoL.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study involving 221 consecutive unselected GO patients (77.4% females, mean age 52 ± 11.6) referred to our clinic in the period 2017–2021. Detailed medical history was obtained from all patients, followed by hormonal and immunological testing and comprehensive ocular status. QoL was assessed by a disease-specific questionnaire (GO-QoL), consisting of two scales—one related to visual functioning (QoL-VF) and the other—to physical appearance (QoL-AP). The results were calculated by formula and expressed as percentages.

Results

Mild GO patients had significantly higher scores on both scales of GO-QoL compared to moderate-to-severe and sight-threatening GO patients (82.0 vs. 54.6% and 27.3% for QoL-VF; 70.1 vs. 54.4% and 36.9% for QoL-AP).

Patients with active GO had significantly poorer QoL-VF (56.6 vs. 76.6%) and QoL-AP (53.1 vs. 67.5%) in comparison to patients with inactive GO.

The stepwise linear regression analysis showed that the variables with major predictive value for QoL-VF were: CAS, diplopia score, visual acuity and severity of the symptoms (R2 = 0.44), whereas gender, CAS, diplopia score and proptosis best predicted QoL-AP (R2 = 0.39).

Conclusions

The impact of GO on patients’ QoL depends on the severity and activity of the disease. The clinical predictors of the impairment of QoL should be taken into account when considering the optimal adjunctive treatment approaches aiming to improve patients’ QoL.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science under the National Program „Young Scientists and Postdoctoral Students—2“

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical University of Sofia, Department of Endocrinology, University Hospital of Endocrinology, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Mariya Asenova Stoynova, Alexander Dimitrov Shinkov, Inna Dimitrova Dimitrova, Inna Angelova Yankova & Roussanka Dimitrova Kovatcheva

Authors
  1. Mariya Asenova Stoynova
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  2. Alexander Dimitrov Shinkov
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  3. Inna Dimitrova Dimitrova
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  4. Inna Angelova Yankova
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  5. Roussanka Dimitrova Kovatcheva
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design, Material preparation was performed by Mariya Asenova Stoynova, Inna Dimitrova Dimitrova and Inna Angelova Yankova, whereas data collection – by all authors. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Mariya Asenova Stoynova and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read approved the final manuscript.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethics approval

The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee (approval number 21B/25.07.2017) and was in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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All patients included in the study signed an informed consent.

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Stoynova, M.A., Shinkov, A.D., Dimitrova, I.D. et al. Evaluation of disease-specific quality of life and its influencing factors in Bulgarian patients with Graves’ orbitopathy. Int Ophthalmol 44, 68 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-024-02952-x

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