The impact of systemic sclerosis on health‐related quality of life assessed by SF‐36: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Objective The purpose of this meta‐analysis was to systematically review the literature to evaluate the impact of systemic sclerosis (SSc) on the health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) assessed by the Medical Outcomes Short‐Form‐36 questionnaire (SF‐36). Methods A systematic literature search was performed on PubMed, Web of Science and Embase until April 2017 to obtain eligible studies. Random effect model was performed to summarize the scores of each domain. Scores from the SF‐36 questionnaire were used as the outcome measurements, and mean differences with 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Results In total, seven studies were eligible for inclusion criteria, comprising 795 SSc patients and 1154 healthy controls. The SF‐36 questionnaire score of each domain (physical function, role physical function, emotional role function, vitality, mental health, social function, body pain, general health) was lower in SSc patients than in healthy controls, meanwhile, physical component scale (PCS) and mental component scale (MCS) scores were all lower in patients with SSc than in healthy controls. Likewise, pooled mean scores of PCS and MCS ranged from 31.20 to 52.80, 37.40 to 68.30, respectively. Additionally, the score of PCS was lower than that of MCS in SSc patients. Conclusions This meta‐analysis showed that SSc patients had lower HRQoL than healthy controls, and SSc had negative influence on the HRQoL of patients. This indicates that clinical workers should pay more attention to SSc patients' HRQoL, so as to improve global health of patients with SSc.