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Health-related quality of life in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a Spanish study based on patient reports

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Abstract

Introduction and objectives

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a disease that significantly affects the quality of life and welfare of patients. SLE patients can be classified into multimorbidity levels using Clinical Risk Groups (CRGs) to help to incorporate predictive models of health needs. The goal of this study was to correlate CRGs with health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) and costs in SLE patients.

Methods

A questionnaire was administered to SLE patients in four hospital centers of the Valencian Community (Spain) between October 2015 and March 2016. The factors studied included HR-QoL (EQ-5D-5L and VAS), disease activity (SLAI/SELENA), damage (SLICC/ACR), and severity (IGK).

Results

The patients (N = 190, 92.06% female, age (mean ± SD) 47.23 ± 13.43 years) were sorted according to health status in nine CRGs. We found that most SLE patients (> 70%) were in CRGs 5 and 6. The main HR-QoL issues in these patients were related to mobility, ability to perform usual activities, and pain/discomfort. The scores (mean ± SD) for EQ-5D-5L and VAS were 0.74 ± 0.25 and 65.67 ± 23.52, respectively. We found that the age of the patients negatively affected their HR-QoL (r = − 0.266). SLE direct costs per patient increased with each CRG group, representing 71.92% of the total costs, while indirect costs were highly variable. The average cost per patient with SLE amounted to €8432.85 (year 2014).

Conclusions

Patients’ quality of life is related with age, disease activity, damage, and severity. Age was the parameter which most affects HR-QoL. Most costs of SLE are concentrated in two CRGs in which the HR-QoL deteriorates sharply.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Francisco López de Saro (Trialance SCCL) for medical writing support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia, Spain

    J. A. Román Ivorra

  2. Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Valencia, Spain

    N. Fernández-Llanio-Comella

  3. Hospital General Universitario de Elda, Alicante, Spain

    A. San-Martín-Álvarez

  4. Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, Spain

    P. Vela-Casasempere

  5. Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria (INCLIVA), Valencia, Spain

    I. Saurí-Ferrer

  6. Centro de Ingeniería Económica (INECO), Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Valencia, Spain

    S. González-de-Julián & D. Vivas-Consuelo

  7. INECO. Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Universitat Politècnica de València, Edificio 7J. Oficina 3.24, Cn de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    D. Vivas-Consuelo

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  1. J. A. Román Ivorra
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Correspondence to D. Vivas-Consuelo.

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Román Ivorra, J.A., Fernández-Llanio-Comella, N., San-Martín-Álvarez, A. et al. Health-related quality of life in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a Spanish study based on patient reports. Clin Rheumatol 38, 1857–1864 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-019-04485-6

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