Health-related quality of life in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in Midwest Brazil.

INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVE Evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and the association between QOL domains, measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life Group (WHOQOL-100) assessment instrument, and disease activity. PATIENTS AND METHODS A cross-sectional analytic study involving 95 patients with SLE, according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, aged 20-49 years, attended at the University Center of Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, MS. We used the following instruments: demographic and clinical data collection form and WHOQOL-100 instrument. Evaluation of disease activity was performed by SLEDAI. On statistical analysis, we applied Student's t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation. RESULTS Group-case: 79 female with mild to moderate SLE activity (SLEDAI = 1-10) and severe activity (SLEDAI > 11). CONTROL GROUP 16 female with inactive SLE (SLEDAI = 0). All domains of WHOQOL-100 proved to be affected, with significant difference (P < 0.005) between the case and control groups in which there was a better perception of QOL in the domain Spirituality and worst perception of QOL in the domain Environment. When confronting QOL domains with education, we detected a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the Physical, Psychological, Level of independence, and Environment domains. The comparison between QOL and disease activity was significant (P < 0.005) in three domains: Physical, Psychological, and Environment. CONCLUSION SLE with intense activity determines a worse QOL condition than inactive SLE. The assessment of QOL enables the knowledge of disease and treatment impact in a contextualized way, which can render more appropriate and more comprehensive interventions.