Pain, quality of life and functional ability in rheumatoid arthritis: A concept analysis

Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disorder mainly affecting small joints that lead to significant disability in daily activities. We sought to study the impact of the disease severity and functional impairment on the Quality of Life in Indian patients with RA.

Methods: World Health Organization- Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQoL-BREF) questionnaire was used to measure the quality of life (QoL) in 40 adults with RA (ACR/EULAR criteria 2010) and 20 controls. Other demographic variables include age, gender, BMI, clinical manifestations such as duration of disease, duration of morning stiffness, current pain status using Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) also recorded. Functional disability was assessed using the COCHIN hand function scale. An appropriate statistical test was applied.

Results: Out of the 40 patients, 34 were females and 6 were males. The mean age was (38.9 ± 10.3) years and the mean disease duration were (7.08±4.26) years.

In all 4 domains of WHO QoL-BREF scores for RA were less as compared to healthy controls. Physical health, psychological health, and environmental domains were primarily affected by RA with great significance [P< 0.0001]. Hand disability assessment using the COCHIN hand function scale shows a higher score indicating disease severity in RA.

Conclusion: Indian RA patients have poorer quality of life and face more difficulty in day-to-day activity as compared to healthy individuals possibly due to poor prognosis of the disease affecting small joints of the hand.