Quality of life impairment in Behçet’s disease and relationship with disease activity: a prospective study

Abstract

Our aim was to prospectively investigate the impact of Behçet's disease (BD), disease activity, and clinical and demographic characteristics on different aspects of quality of life (QoL) measured by the short-form (SF)-36 QoL scale. We administered the SF-36 to 37 consecutive BD patients in different moments of disease activity, and to 23 healthy controls (HC). The eight subcategories of the SF-36 underwent statistical analysis for identifying differences and correlations. Compared to HC, BD patients showed significantly lower mean scores in all SF-36 QoL subscales except mental health and role-emotional. Females showed a poorer QoL compared to males. Disease activity evaluated by the BD Current Activity Form inversely correlated with physical functioning (ρ = -0.68, p < 0.0001), bodily pain (ρ = -0.68, p < 0.0001), role-physical (ρ = -0.64, p < 0.0001), vitality (ρ = -0.64, p < 0.0001), general health (ρ = -0.64, p < 0.0001), social functioning (ρ = -0.50, p = 0.0002), mental health (ρ = -0.48, p = 0.0004), and role-emotional (ρ = -0.40, p = 0.003). Mucosal, central nervous system (CNS), musculoskeletal and ocular manifestations were the main factors that negatively affected QoL in BD. For ocular disease, physical functioning was significantly impaired in patients with panuveitis compared to other ocular manifestations (p = 0.0002). Best-corrected visual acuity was inversely correlated with social functioning (ρ = -0.53, p < 0.0001), role-physical (ρ = -0.48, p < 0.0001), bodily pain (ρ = -0.46, p = 0.02), and mental health (ρ = -0.43, p < 0.0001). Patients with BD have a poorer QoL compared to HC, particularly for women, while the decline of QoL is closely related to the overall disease activity of BD. Single organ involvements may affect independently specific SF-36 subscales, especially mucosal, CNS, musculoskeletal, and ocular manifestations.

Quality of life assessment in behçet’s disease: an observational case control single center study

“…Because of all these factors, one could say that people with a higher level of education might have higher QoL (Canpolat and Yurtsever, 2011). Similar indings were reported by a recent study which showed that BD patients had signi icantly lower mean scores in all the SF-36 QoL subscores except for mental health and role-emotional for which the results was not signi icantly lower (Fabiani et al, 2017).…”

Identification of physical and psychosocial problems based on symptoms in patients with Behçet’s disease

“…In some cases, eye involvement leads to loss of vision. Therefore, patients with eye involvement are markedly limited in their daily life activities, and their QOL is decreased [12,17,18]. Based on the SF-36, Fabiani et al reported that the physical functioning score was significantly worse in patients with BD with eye disease than in patients with BD without ocular involvement [16].…”

Behçet’s syndrome: focus on pathogenetic background, clinical phenotypes and specific treatments

“…", Mumcu and colleagues investigated the patient's perspective in subjects affected by BS and psoriasis through a specific questionnaire [36]. According to previous findings, fatigue and pain were frequently reported by BS patients, impairing the quality of life [37]. In the study of this topical collection, musculoskeletal and eye involvements highlighted the negative beliefs about the illness, while the worst score on psychological attribution was reported by psoriatic patients [36].…”