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Rheumatology Advance Access published online on March 23, 2009
Rheumatology, doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kep047
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Perceptions of disease and health-related quality of life among patients with gout

Susan J. Lee1,2, Jan D. Hirsch3, Robert Terkeltaub1,2, Dinesh Khanna4, Jasvinder A. Singh5,6, Andrew Sarkin7 and Arthur Kavanaugh2

1San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 2University of California, San Diego (UCSD), 3UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy, La Jolla, 4University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 5Minneapolis VA Medical Center, 6University of Minnesota, MN and 7UCSD Health Services Research Center, La Jolla, CA, USA

Correspondence to: Susan J. Lee, University of California, San Diego, 9320 Campus Point, Dr. Suite 225, La Jolla, CA 92037-0943, USA. E-mail: s2lee{at}ucsd.edu


  Abstract

Objective. To assess the impact of gout on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients in three large US cities.

Methods. Gout patients completed the Short Form-36 (SF-36) and a series of questions regarding their gout, comorbidities and demographics. Their physicians confirmed the gout diagnosis and evaluated the severity of patient's gout. The differences in mean norm-based SF-36 scores between the US norms and gout patients and between subgroups of gout patients were calculated. The relative weight and significance of gout-related characteristics associated with patients’ HRQoL were also calculated.

Results. The majority of the patients were males with a mean age of 62.2 years and median disease duration of 13.8 years. Most were overweight/obese with several comorbidities. Half of the patients experienced three or more gout attacks per year with a typical gout attack involving five joints and lasting for at least 4 days. The Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) was significantly lower for gout patients (P < 0.002 and P < 0.001, respectively). Among gout patients, the mean PCS and MCS were lower for those with more frequent gout attacks and greater number of affected joints (P < 0.005 and P < 0.001, respectively). After adjusting for age, gender and comorbidities, the number of joints involved during a typical and the worst gout attack had the greatest impact on patient's PCS and MCS.

Conclusion. Gout patients had clinically significant lower HRQoL than their age-matched US norm. Comorbidities and several additional gout-related factors significantly impacted the overall HRQoL.

KEY WORDS: Gout, Health-related quality of life, SF-36, Outcomes

Submitted 1 August 2008; revised version accepted 6 February 2009.
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