Assessment of Quality of Life, Psychological and Functional Status and Disease Activity in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis and Fibromyalgia

Objective: Anxiety and depression are psychological disorders which frequently accompany and affect the course of rheumatic diseases. Quality of life is also affected by psychological status. In this study, we aimed to assess psychological status and quality of life in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and fibromyalgia (FM) and investigate their association with functional status, disease activity and physical limitation. Method: Thirty-seven patients with AS and thirty-four patients with FM were included in this study. The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI) were used for assessment of disease activity and physical functions respectively. The Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQoL) questionnaire was used for disease-related quality of life in AS patients. Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) was used for assessment of functional status in FM patients. Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were, respectively, used for assessment of quality of life and psychological status in groups. Results: There was no significant difference between the groups in HADS-total, HADS-depression and HADS-anxiety scores (p>0.05). However, patients with FM had significantly higher NHP-total and NHP-pain scores compared to patients with AS (p<0.05). Conclusion: There was no significant difference between the two groups in psychological distress. Higher NHP-pain scores in patients with FM might have been caused by lower pain threshold in these patients. The generalizability of our findings is also limited because of the relatively small sample size. J Clin Exp Invest 2016; 7 (1): 41-46