Health-related quality of life assessment in a group of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Background: JIA is known to affect the physical and social wellbeing and impact scholastic achievement of children. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important outcome measure in understanding the impact of chronic illness. Objective: We sought to evaluate the HRQOL of a group of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) to uncover their main problems that might prevent them from leading a normal life. Methods: We consecutively enrolled 119 JIA patients who were classified according to the ILAR criteria into 16 cases with oligoarticular (13.4%), 36 with polyarticular (30.3%) and 67 with systemic JIA (56.3%). They were 62 (52.1%) males and 57 (47.9%) females with a mean age of 7.7 years. Patients were evaluated by the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory TM Version 4.0 (PedsQLTM) questionnaire. Results: Physical and feeling problem scores were negatively correlated to age, age at onset, diagnostic lag and diseases duration. The learning problem score showed negative correlation with age, age at onset and receival of non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) pointing to the favorable effect of pain control on the quality of life. Also, learning and social problem scores were positively correlated to the diagnostic lag. Total scores showed negative correlation with age and age at onset. Conclusion: JIA has an important impact on the HRQOL and normal development. Pain control is mandatory for reduction of learning problems via the judicious use of NSAIDs and the delay in diagnosis was associated with unfavorable learning and social outcome.