Quality of life of women followed up for systemic lupus erythematosus in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: a cross-sectional study of 51 cases

Abstract

Objective: To determine the quality of life of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients attending Cocody  University Teaching Hospital in Abidjan using the SF 36 tool.
Design: A descriptive and analytical cross-sectional prospective study.
Methods: The study was carried out at the Rheumatology Department of Cocody’s University Teaching Hospital in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire over a period of seven months from January 2019 to July 2019. Women diagnosed with SLE fulfilling American College of Rheumatology 1997 criteria and/or Systemic Lupus International  Collaborating Clinics classification (SLICC) 2012 criteria for SLE were included. These patients completed the SF-36 questionnaire. The SF-36 scores reflected the degree of achievement in each domain. The lower the SF 36 scores the lower the quality of life. Quality of life was altered for any score below 40. For the disease activity, we used the systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index. We looked for an association between the characteristics of the patients and the disease and the domains of the QOL.
Results: The study included 51 women and with a mean age of 35.88 ± 12.37 years. The patients were mostly single (65.38%) with a university level of education (59.62%). Most of them had low monthly income (82.69%) and they were without health insurance (51.92%). The mean duration of SLE was 76.79 ± 59.37 months. The  mean disease activity score (mean SLE disease activity index) was 9.92. The affected domains of the SF- 36  questionnaire showing altered quality of life were “physical role” (37.02) and “vitality” (39.99). Patients with lower quality of life were found to be young women, not married, have high disease activity, had skin and  haematological manifestations, very high disease activity (SLEDAI) and without treatment.
Conclusion: In Abidjan, SLE patients attending Cocody University Teaching Hospital have a lower quality of life. Determinants of low quality of life are: young women, not married, secondaryeducated level, mucocutaneous and haematological manifestations, very high disease activity (SLEDAI) and patient without treatment.