To measure health related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with very early arthritis in a population based study in southern Sweden, and to compare HRQOL at baseline between the different diagnostic groups. Further, we investigated whether HRQOL at baseline correlated with the costs the patients incurred during the study.
Seventy-one adult patients with arthritis of less than 3 months' duration were referred from primary health care centers to rheumatologists. HRQOL was measured with the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales (AIMS) and EuroQol at baseline. A comparison of HRQOL measures at baseline and the costs the patients incurred during the study was conducted in 56 of the patients.
Twenty-seven (38%) patients had reactive arthritis (ReA), 17 (24%) undifferentiated arthritis, 15 (21%) rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 4 (6%) psoriatic arthritis, and the rest (11%) other diagnoses. Statistically significant differences were found between the 4 patient groups concerning the AIMS subscales of dexterity, household activity, activities of daily living (ADL) and pain, the patients with RA being most severely affected. There were no statistically significant differences between the 4 diagnosis groups concerning the EuroQol utility and EuroQol visual analog scale (VAS) scores. Of the AIMS subscales, the mobility, physical activity, household activity, ADL, and pain subscales correlated significantly with the incurred costs. Also the EuroQol utility scores and EuroQol VAS scores correlated significantly with the costs. Only the AIMS household activity subscale predicted the costs in the regression analysis.
Patients with RA had significantly worse scores in the AIMS dexterity, household activities, ADL, and pain subscales compared to patients with other arthritides very early in the disease. The EuroQol generic quality of life instrument was less sensitive in detecting differences between patients with early arthritis than the disease-specific AIMS instrument. There was a correlation between the costs and the EuroQol utility scores and EuroQol VAS scores during the very first months of the disease, as well as with costs and the AIMS subscales of mobility, physical activity, household activity, ADL, and pain.