Perceptions of disease and health-related quality of life among patients with gout

Objective. To assess the impact of gout on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients in three large US cities. Methods. Gout patients completed the Short Form-36 (SF-36) and a series of questions regarding their gout, comorbidities and demographics. Their physicians confirmed the gout diagnosis and evaluated the severity of patients gout. The differences in mean norm-based SF-36 scores between the US norms and gout patients and between subgroups of gout patients were calculated. The relative weight and significance of gout-related characteristics associated with patients HRQoL were also calculated. Results. The majority of the patients were males with a mean age of 62.2 years and median disease duration of 13.8 years. Most were overweight/obese with several comorbidities. Half of the patients experienced three or more gout attacks per year with a typical gout attack involving five joints and lasting for at least 4 days. The Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) was significantly lower for gout patients (P0.002 and P0.001, respectively). Among gout patients, the mean PCS and MCS were lower for those with more frequent gout attacks and greater number of affected joints (P0.005 and P0.001, respectively). After adjusting for age, gender and comorbidities, the number of joints involved during a typical and the worst gout attack had the greatest impact on patients PCS and MCS. Conclusion. Gout patients had clinically significant lower HRQoL than their age-matched US norm. Comorbidities and several additional gout-related factors significantly impacted the overall HRQoL.