Pediatric Rheumatology Online Journal → June 2003 → Health-Related Quality of Life, Disease Activity and Outcome Assessments→ Abstract #26

THE HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN COSTA RICAN CHILDREN WITH JUVENILE CHRONIC ARTHRITIS: A POPULATION-BASED LONGITUDINAL STUDY

O. Arguedas,¹ A. Fasth,² B. Andersson-Gare.³

¹Immunology and Rheumatology, National Children's Hospital, San Jose, Costa Rica;²Pediatrics, University of Goteborg, Goteborg, Sweden; ³Pediatrics, Ryhov Hospital, Jonkoping, Sweden

Objective. To study the impact of juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) on health-related quality of life aspects in an unselected group of children.
Methods. Forty-seven patients from a prospective population-based study in Costa Rica, with disease onset from 1993 to 1995, were investigated after median (range) disease duration of 4.1 years (2.9-4.9) (incidence group). Their median (range) age at the last follow-up evaluation was 14.2 (5.2-20.8) years. Another 49 patients with disease onset prior to 1993 and younger than 16 years of age on December 31,1995 (cross-sectional group), were also evaluated as a comparison group. Disability and discomfort were evaluated using the Costa Rican version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ). Patients and parents evaluated the impact of disease on social life and family economy.
Results. At follow-up, the median (range) CHAQ disability index (CHAQ-DI) for the incidence group was 0.37 (0-2.87). Eighty-five percent of the patients indicated some difficulty in daily activities. The children with continuing disease activity has a 5.2 times higher risk of a disability index Conclusion. As in other studies of JCA on unselected populations, we found a high proportion of patients with favorable functional outcome although the majority of them still reported some difficulty the CHAQ. The strongest determinant for disability was continuing disease activity.