Groessl Erik J, Ganiats Theodore G, Sarkin Andrew J
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California 92161, USA.
Pharmacoeconomics. 2006;24(2):109-21. doi: 10.2165/00019053-200624020-00002.
Assessment of health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has become important in health research and can inform clinical care. Many studies have found sociodemographic differences in the HR-QOL of people with RA, and interpreting these differences can be challenging. Biological, health disparity, reporting and assessment instrument differences are a few of the possible explanations that should be considered when interpreting results. Our review of the evidence of sociodemographic differences in HR-QOL in people with RA produced 34 articles describing 49 studies.Typically, patients with RA who were older, female, less educated, non-employed and/or less affluent tended to have significantly lower HR-QOL than other groups. Some evidence also indicated that people with RA who are non-White or who live in rural settings may also tend to have lower HR-QOL scores, but the number of studies supporting these findings was sparse. Researchers and clinicians can optimise their assessment of HR-QOL by finding well validated instruments for the context they are working in. Additional research is needed to identify the exact causes of HR-QOL differences so that quality treatment can be provided to those in need.
对类风湿性关节炎（RA）患者的健康相关生活质量（HR-QOL）进行评估在健康研究中已变得至关重要，并且可为临床护理提供参考。许多研究发现RA患者的HR-QOL存在社会人口统计学差异，而解读这些差异可能具有挑战性。生物学因素、健康差异、报告及评估工具差异是解读结果时应考虑的一些可能解释。我们对RA患者HR-QOL社会人口统计学差异证据的综述产生了34篇描述49项研究的文章。通常，年龄较大、女性、受教育程度较低、未就业和/或不太富裕的RA患者的HR-QOL往往明显低于其他群体。一些证据还表明，非白人或生活在农村地区的RA患者的HR-QOL得分可能也往往较低，但支持这些发现的研究数量较少。研究人员和临床医生可以通过为他们工作的环境找到经过充分验证的工具来优化对HR-QOL的评估。需要进一步的研究来确定HR-QOL差异的确切原因，以便为有需要的人提供高质量的治疗。
