To assess the quality of life of 122 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients using the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP), which is a generic quality-of-life instrument, and to compare the results with those of 99 healthy local control subjects.
Our patient group represented consecutive out-patients from a central hospital. The NHP contains 38 items, each with a weighted score, that assess subjective distress on six dimensions: mobility, pain, energy, sleep, emotional reactions and social isolation.
The median (age-adjusted) NHP scores for mobility, pain and energy showed statistically highly significant differences (P < 0.001) between the RA patients and the control group, indicating a poorer quality of life among the RA patients on all these dimensions. These NHP dimensions were also closely related to patients' experience of their overall health status. The NHP scores for sleep, emotional reaction and social isolation did not differ between the patients and the controls.
The NHP, an instrument for assessing health-related quality of life, differentiated RA patients from local healthy individuals on the dimensions of mobility, energy and pain.