Employment and Quality of Life Among Patients with Rheumatoid Arhtritis in Four Latin-American Countries

Ricardo Xavier^1,2, Fernando Chalem³, Javier Duhau⁴, Jorge Morales^5,6, Cesar Ramos-Remus⁷, Jose Fernando Molina⁸, Eugenia Carnide⁹ and Annette Perez-Gilbe¹⁰, ¹Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil, ²RUA ATILIO BILIBIO, 120 CASA 9, Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande Do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil, ³Fundación Instituto de Reumatología Fernando Chalem, Bogota, Colombia, ⁴Centro de Investigaciones en Enfermedades Reumáticas (CIER), Buenos Aires, Argentina, ⁵Imagenology X ray, Hospital de Especialidades Centro Medico La Raza IMSS, Mexico, Mexico, ⁶Rheumatology, Hospital Aranda de la Parra, Leon, Mexico, ⁷Unidad de Investigacion en Enf. Cronico-Degenerativas, Guadalajara, Mexico, ⁸Reumalab, Medellín, Colombia, ⁹Abbvie Inc, São Paulo, Brazil, ¹⁰Abbvie Inc, San Juan

Meeting: 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

Date of first publication: September 29, 2015

Keywords: Employment, quality of life and rheumatoid arthritis (RA)

Session Information

Date: Monday, November 9, 2015

Title: Rheumatoid Arthritis - Clinical Aspects Poster II

Session Type: ACR Poster Session B

Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM

Background/Purpose: Rheumatoid Arthritis impacts negatively on quality of life and work productivity. There are virtually no data on the employment status and burden of disease in RA patients from Latin-America (LA). To assess the burden of RA on work productivity and health related quality of life in LA patients.

Methods: Consecutive RA patients attending 20 rheumatology outpatient clinics distributed in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico were included and completed the following standard questionnaires: Workplace Activity Limitations Scale (WALS), Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI), Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ), EuroQol (EQ-5D) and Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36). Sociodemographic data were also collected.

Results: The study included 309 patients, 90% female, mean age of 43 years (SD 9) and disease duration of 8 years (SD 8). At least 40% of patients reported some difficulty in all workplace activities (WALS), especially “crouching, bending, kneeling or working in awkward positions” (83%) and “lifting, carrying or moving objects” (80%). WPAI showed employment rate of 58%, and mean work time lost in a week of 4.3hs (SD 15.8). For WLQ, physical job demands were affected in 42% of patients followed by time demands in 34%. Mean self-evaluated health status using EQ-5D visual analogue scale (where 0=worst and 100=best health status) was 69 (SD 20), ranging from 63 (SD 22) in Brazil to 75 (SD 21) in Mexico. EQ-5D dimension mostly impaired was pain and discomfort with only 20.3% reporting have no problems in that dimension, while 72% reported have no problems with self-care. SF-36 physical and mental component scores for the total sample were 39 (SD 9.8) and 45(SD 11.4), respectively. Lower values were observed for the physical component in Brazil (34) and the mental component in Argentina and Colombia (44). The table below summarizes these results for each country analyzed.

Conclusion: RA affects both work performance and quality of life in a substantial proportion of patients. Although similar trends were shown among countries, Brazilian patients reported to be more affected in most of evaluated aspects.

Disclosure: R. Xavier, AstraZeneca, 5,Hospira, 5,Janssen Pharmaceutica Product, L.P., 5,Pfizer Inc, 5,AbbVie, 8,AstraZeneca, 8,Janssen Pharmaceutica Product, L.P., 8,Pfizer Inc, 8,Roche Pharmaceuticals, 8; F. Chalem, Abbvie, 5; J. Duhau, Abbvie, 2; J. Morales, Abbvie, Amgen, Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi and Servier, 5; C. Ramos-Remus, None; J. F. Molina, Abbvie, 2; E. Carnide, Abbvie, 3; A. Perez-Gilbe, Abbvie, 3.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Xavier R, Chalem F, Duhau J, Morales J, Ramos-Remus C, Molina JF, Carnide E, Perez-Gilbe A. Employment and Quality of Life Among Patients with Rheumatoid Arhtritis in Four Latin-American Countries [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015; 67 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/employment-and-quality-of-life-among-patients-with-rheumatoid-arhtritis-in-four-latin-american-countries/. Accessed .

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