Quality of Life in Patients With Behçet Disease and Its Relation With Clinical Symptoms and Disease Activity

Abstract Background Behçet's disease(BD) is a systemic vasculitis which may affect the quality of life (QoL). Aims This study aimed to assess the QoL in Iranian Azeri BD patients as well as evaluating the association between QoL and disease characteristics including disease activity and clinical symptoms. Methods In this cross-sectional study, a total of 123 BD patients aged 15–65 years fulfilling International Criteria for BD and 123 healthy controls matched with regard to gender were included. Patients aged 15–18 years had the informed consent and consent of their parents for participation. Short Form-36 Quality of Life Scale (SF-36) was used to evaluate QoL. Disease activity was measured by Behcet's Disease Current Activity Form and the Iranian Behcet's Disease Dynamic Activity Measure and Vasculitis Damage Index (VDI) was used for the clinical assessment of damage. Results The mean ± SD age of BD patients and control group was 38.19 ± 10.99 and 33.65 ± 7.29 years, respectively. The Physical Health score as well as most of SF-36 domains including Role Physical, Bodily Pain, General Health, Vitality, and Mental Health were significantly lower in BD patients compared with the control group ( P < 0.05). There was significant correlation between the Physical and Mental Health scores and most of SF-36 domains with disease activity and clinical symptoms including genital ulcers, ophthalmic and central nervous system (CNS) involvement ( P < 0.05). Significant correlation was only observed between VDI and Bodily Pain domain ( P < 0.05). Conclusion Quality of life is impaired in BD patients, and this impairment is related with disease severity. It seems that presence of genital ulcers, eye and CNS involvement lead to the impairment of QoL in BD patients. These results highlight the importance of nursing interventions in managing clinical symptoms in these patients.