Narcolepsy Associated With Reduced Health-Related QoL vs Other Chronic Conditions

Health-related quality of life in people with narcolepsy is substantially lower than in the general population as well as several chronic disease populations, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Sleep Research.

“This is the first review that has attempted to systematically assess the impact of narcolepsy on health-related quality of life,” researchers wrote. “Given the reduced health-related quality of life in people with narcolepsy, its measurement can aid the assessment of treatment response, and can help guide the allocation of resources within the clinical setting.”

The review included 30 studies spanning 4600 people with narcolepsy. Researchers also conducted meta-analyses of data, including data for various domains on the Short Form 36 (SF36) from 17 studies.

Mental domains of quality of life on the SF36 were more affected than physical domains in people with narcolepsy, according to the study. Researchers reported pooled mean scores of 42.98 for the Mental Component Summary and 45.91 for the Physical Component Summary.

The study also found that health-related quality of life was considerably impaired in people with narcolepsy compared with general population norms for the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Norway. Health-related quality of life was also impaired when people with narcolepsy were compared with patients from other chronic health condition populations.

“[P]eople with narcolepsy reported considerably lower health-related quality of life in all SF36 domains compared with people with diabetes, epilepsy, and hypertension. When compared with multiple sclerosis, with the exception of physical functioning (+34.34), physical role limitations (+13.29) and vitality (+0.11), people with narcolepsy scored lower … in the remaining five SF36 subscales,” the authors wrote.

“These comparisons serve to highlight the high symptom burden associated with narcolepsy.”

Reference:
Tadrous R, O'Rourke D, Mockler D, Broderick J. Health-related quality of life in narcolepsy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Sleep Res. 2021;30(6):e13383. doi:10.1111/jsr.13383