Pediatric Rheumatology Online Journal → June 2003 → Health-Related Quality of Life, Disease Activity and Outcome Assessments→ Abstract #25

HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE (HRQL) OF PATIENTS WITH JUVENILE IDIOPATHIC ARTHRITIS (JIA)

N Ruperto, A Ravelli, AM Prieur, C Machado, K Murray, SC Bae, R Joos, I Foeldvari, R Burgos-Vargas, M Hofer, G Susic, P Lahdenne, I Rumba, J Garcia Consuegra, A Martini for PRINTO

¹Pediatria II - PRINTO, IRCCS G. Gaslini, Genova, Italy

Objective. To evaluate HRQL of JIA patients and its relationship with disease activity and disability measures.
Methods. In this multicenter cross sectional study, HRQL was assessed through the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ). The disease activity measures were the physician's global assessment (MD glo), the parent's global assessment (Parent glo), the parent's evaluation of patient's pain (Patient pain), the no of active joints, and the ESR. The disability measures were the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) and the no of limited joints. HRQL in JIA was compared with healthy children.
Results. A total of 6,644 subjects were enrolled from 32 countries: 3,235 had JIA [20% systemic (syst), 33% polyarticular (poly), 17% extended oligoarticular (oligo), and 30% persistent oligo and 3,409 were healthy. The mean CHQ Physical Summary Score (PhS) was 45 in the whole JIA cohort (42 in syst, 43 in poly, 44 in extended oligo, and 49 in persistent oligo) and 55 in healthy (p0.0001). The mean Psychosocial Summary Score (PsS) of the CHQ was 48 in the whole JIA cohort (48 in syst, 47 in poly, 47 in extended oligo, 49 in persistent oligo) and 52 in healthy (p0.0001). As compared to healthy children, JIA patients had significantly lower values in all subscales of the CHQ, with the exception of change in health. Both PhS and PsS proved able to discriminate between JIA subtypes and healthy children. The correlation with the MD glo, the parent glo, the patient pain, and the CHAQ was fair to good (Pearson r  0.5) for the PhS and poorer (r  0.4) for the PsS. Both PhS and PsS were poorly correlated with ESR and the articular variables.
Conclusion. We found that patients with JIA have significantly lower HRQL as compared to healthy pairs, particularly in the physical domain. The HRQL was significantly more affected in patients with the systemic and polyarticular subtypes and with increasing levels of disease activity and disability.