Short report: correlates of functional disability with disease activity in elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis |
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| Authors: | Ahmet Omma Selda Çelik Cemal Bes Özlem Pehlivan Sevinç Can Sandıkçı Sibel Yılmaz Öner |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey;2. Department of Rheumatology, Bak?rk?y Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital, ?stanbul, Turkey;3. Department of Rheumatology, ümraniye Training and Research Hospital, ?stanbul, Turkey |
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| Abstract: | Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) prevalence increases with age and old people are special patient population. The recognition of functional disability related to RA could be challenging in elderly patients because aging itself and potential co-morbid disease may also cause functional disability. In this study, we aimed to look at the correlation between disease activity and functional disability in elderly RA patients. Elderly RA patients, ≥65 years old at their routine visits were included in the study. The composite ‘disease activity score’ in 28 joints (DAS-28) was used to determine disease activity groups. Health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) scores were calculated to describe the functional disability and compared across the disease activity groups. Two hundred and fifty-eight RA patients with the mean age of 71 ± 5 (65–90) and a total disease duration of 8.4 ± 8.5 (.5–50) years were recruited. The proportion of patients with high and moderate disease activity was 70%. HAQ scores were significantly correlated with disease activity (p < .05). Functional disability estimated by HAQ was correlated with disease activity in elderly patients with RA |
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| Keywords: | Disease activity functional disability elderly rheumatoid arthritis |
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