Actividad de la enfermedad relacionada con calidad de vida y adherencia al tratamiento en pacientes con artritis reumatoide. Hospital IESS-Cuenca, 2019

Abstract

Background: rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes joint destruction, negatively impacting quality of life. Periodic evaluation of disease activity determines prognosis and therapeutic success. Due to the aforementioned, it is necessary to evaluate the quality of life and in a complementary way the adherence to treatment as fundamental pillars in the control of the disease. General objective: to determine the activity of the disease and its relationship with quality of life and adherence to treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis at the IESS-Cuenca Hospital, 2019. Methodology: analytical, observational, cross-sectional study in 265 patients who attended the rheumatology outpatient clinic of the IESS-Cuenca Hospital. Prior to signing the informed consent, sociodemographic information, time of illness and comorbidities were collected on a registration form prepared by the authors. In addition, validated questionnaires were applied for health-related quality of life and adherence to treatment. The data obtained was analyzed in the SPSS version 12.0 software. Results: 83.8% of the study population corresponded to the female gender. The average age was 55.8 ± 12.8 years. Regarding disease activity, 45.3% were in remission and 4.5% in high activity. Quality of life had an average score of 6.89 and was rated as good in 86.8% of cases. Treatment adherence was 67.9%. A significant association was found between disease activity and quality of life (p = 0.001). Conclusion: The study evidenced an association between disease activity and quality of life, whereas, no significant association of disease activity with treatment adherence was found