Older Age, Obesity, Enthesitis With PsA Influences HRQoL

Several clinical aspects, comorbidities, and medications influence the evolution of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

A recently published study in Rheumatology and Therapy identified factors associated with HRQoL evolution in patients PsA in Spain. Researchers conducted a longitudinal observational study that included incident patients who were diagnosed for the first time with PsA and followed-up until loss of follow-up, death, or November 2017. They analyzed the influence of demographic and clinical variables in baseline HRQoL. The influence of those variables and of treatment-related factors in repeated measured of HRQoL was also analyzed.

The analysis included 230 patients with 3384 visits to a rheumatology outpatient clinic. Worse HRQoL at baseline was associated with older age, a previous diagnosis of obesity, and the presence of enthesitis. Presence of enthesitis also resulted in worse HRQoL during the follow-up. Methotrexate or antimalarial treatments were associated with an improvement in HRQoL.

“Musculoskeletal manifestations and comorbidities exert a deleterious effect in HRQoL of [patients with] PsA,” concluded the study authors. “Therefore, the optimal management of this condition needs to also address these manifestations in order to try to restore the QoL of these patients,” they added.

Reference
Freites Nuñez D, Madrid-García A, Leon L, et al. Factors associated with health-related quality of life in psoriatic arthritis patients: a longitudinal analysis. Rheumatol Ther. Published July 21, 2021. doi:10.1007/s40744-021-00349-1