Patients with JIA suffer poorer HRQOL than RA, general populations

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is lower in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) than those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the general population 6 months following the initiation of disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) treatment, reveals a study. Both patient groups, however, enjoy similar improvement levels with treatment.

Six-month follow-up data from the Norwegian DMARD Register were used to identify patients with JIA and RA starting or switching DMARD treatment. The investigators performed age- and gender-adjusted regression analyses to compare outcomes among JIA, RA, and the general Norwegian population.

Some 232 patients with JIA and 2,764 with RA had available register data at 6-month follow-up. Patients with JIA showed poorer physical health than those with RA (adjusted difference, ‒3.58, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], ‒6.09 to ‒1.08).

Both JIA and RA patients had lower scores in the physical component summary (PCS) of the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) than the general population (JIA: ‒15.70, 95 percent CI, ‒18.21 to ‒13.19; RA: ‒12.12, 95 percent CI, ‒12.76 to ‒11.47). Mental health measured by the mental component summary (MCS) of SF-36 was comparable across the three groups.

Furthermore, patients with JIA and RA had similar average Short Form 6D (SF-6D) utility levels, but theirs were lower than in the general population.

After 6 months, the proportions of patients with JIA and RA who achieved improvements exceeding minimum clinically important difference in SF-36 scale score, PCS, MCS, and SF-6D were comparable.