Impact of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus on Health-Related Quality of Life in Colombian Patients: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study

Objective: To describe the impact of systematic lupus erythematosus (SLE) on health-related quality of life (HRQL) compared with healthy subjects. Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study of 50 patients with SLE and 50 healthy controls. Sociodemographic, clinical and treatment variables were included. The diagnosis of SLE was made according to the classification criteria of the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism, and the activity of the disease was evaluated with the SLEDAI-2K. The reliability, internal consistency and discriminant power of the SF-36 were evaluated. The information analysis included summary measures, Pearson’s chi-square test, Mann‒Whitney’s U-test, Kruskal‒Wallis’s H-test and linear regression. Results: Forty-eight percent of the patients were women with an average age of 43.4 ± 14.8 years, 74% presented with comorbidities, and 22% were hospitalized in the last six months due to their illness. Seventy percent of the patients received corticosteroids, 62% with immunomodulators and 10% with biological treatments. SLE significantly impacts the domains of HRQL related to physical function, body pain, social function, emotional role, and general health. The factors that explain this impact on HRQL are having comorbidity with fibromyalgia, receiving treatment with DNA synthesis inhibitors and receiving corticosteroid treatments. The SF-36 presents good psychometric performance in the study group. Conclusion: SLE results in a deterioration in the HRQL of patients, as reflected in the domains of body pain and the perception of general health. This effect is more pronounced in patients who also have fibromyalgia. The mental health domain was more affected in those who received corticosteroid treatment.