Geriatric Assessment of Physical and Cognitive Functioning in a Diverse Cohort of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Our results suggest a high prevalence of impairment across multiple domains of function in SLE patients of all ages, similar to or exceeding the prevalence observed in much older geriatric populations. Further research into the added value of geriatric assessment in routine care for SLE is warranted.

Prevalence and correlates of restricted community mobility in a population-based cohort of adults with systemic lupus erythematosus

“…Interestingly, in our study, we saw no association between LSA score and age. This finding stands in contrast to findings in individuals without SLE, among whom older age was associated with lower LSA score,1 and also to findings from our pilot study, in which younger age was associated with lower LSA score 13. One possible reason for a lack of association of LSA scores with age may include survivorship bias in this prevalent cohort, due to the younger patients with more severe disease (and, likely, more restricted community mobility) having shorter survival.…”

Physical Performance in a Diverse, Population‐Based Cohort of Individuals With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

“…Both were associated with lower odds of poorer performance, independent of age, sex, and race, as well as disease activity. In contrast with our pilot 9 and as in the general older adult population, 33 there was no evidence of a male sex advantage in physical performance in the setting of SLE. Similar to our pilot, 9 we did find that mean scores were lower in older versus younger age groups, but those aged 35-49 versus ≥50 years had similar scores, and age was not associated with performance after adjustment, suggesting that older age alone is not a good proxy for lower physical performance among those with SLE.…”

“…In contrast with our pilot 9 and as in the general older adult population, 33 there was no evidence of a male sex advantage in physical performance in the setting of SLE. Similar to our pilot, 9 we did find that mean scores were lower in older versus younger age groups, but those aged 35-49 versus ≥50 years had similar scores, and age was not associated with performance after adjustment, suggesting that older age alone is not a good proxy for lower physical performance among those with SLE. Mean scores were substantially lower among Black versus White participants, whereas Hispanic participants had substantially higher mean scores than non-Hispanic participants.…”

“…To our knowledge, this is the largest study of physical performance in individuals with SLE to date. Our overall SPPB score (mean and median both = 9.0) was similar to what we found in our own pilot 9 (mean = 8.8) and to that reported by Andrews et al 5 (mean = 8.8) in their US cohort of 146 individuals with SLE recruited from the clinic and community; however, it was lower than the mean score of 10.1 among 30 SLE patients recruited from a single Italian clinic. 6 These differences may reflect true differences in populations (eg, community-vs clinic-based recruitment, differences in health care systems and access, different race and ethnicity distributions) or simply random chance.…”

Fluid Cognition Among Individuals With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

“…In our study, self-reported moderate-to-severe forgetfulness was not associated fluid cognition, including the individual domains of episodic and working memory, consistent with our pilot study 18 and with other previous studies in populations with SLE that showed self-reported cognitive impairment did not correlate with objectively measured function. [9][10][11] Such discrepancies could be explained by the measures, which may not reflect realworld situations with competing stimuli 9 or by individual factors such as mood or lack of awareness.…”