REVIEW PAPER
Evaluation of quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with leflunomide –
a literature review
Online publication date: 2012-06-27
Reumatologia 2012;50(3):227-232
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic progressive process of inflamed synovial joints, leading to their deformation, dysfunction, and consequently even disability. The incidence of RA in the general population is 0.3–1.5%. RA greatly reduces the smooth functioning of the patient in everyday life. Studies evaluating the quality of life (HRQoL – Health-Related Quality of Life) with RA entered the canon of the evaluation of therapy, as an indicator of its efficiency and quality.
Purpose: The aim of the study is to review the available literature on the assessment of quality of life of patients with RA treated with leflunomide and general characteristics of the available questionnaires used in the assessment of HRQoL.
Material and methods: Analysis of the available medical literature from databases such as PubMed, Medline, The Cochrane Library and journals.
Conclusions: Quality of life of patients with RA treated with drugs modifying the inflammatory process is an important measure of treatment efficacy. Based on available, but quite limited data, it can be concluded that leflunomide therapy improves quality of life of patients with RA, especially in the assessment made by using type-specific questionnaires (HAQ or MHAQ), as well as general, most of which used the SF-36 and WHOQoL.
Purpose: The aim of the study is to review the available literature on the assessment of quality of life of patients with RA treated with leflunomide and general characteristics of the available questionnaires used in the assessment of HRQoL.
Material and methods: Analysis of the available medical literature from databases such as PubMed, Medline, The Cochrane Library and journals.
Conclusions: Quality of life of patients with RA treated with drugs modifying the inflammatory process is an important measure of treatment efficacy. Based on available, but quite limited data, it can be concluded that leflunomide therapy improves quality of life of patients with RA, especially in the assessment made by using type-specific questionnaires (HAQ or MHAQ), as well as general, most of which used the SF-36 and WHOQoL.
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Copyright: © Narodowy Instytut Geriatrii, Reumatologii i Rehabilitacji w Warszawie. This is an Open Access journal, all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
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