Relation of Social Participation Restrictions with Worsening Quality of Life in Japanese Patients with Behçet’s Disease: The 36-item Short Form Survey

TL;DR

This study shows that social participation restrictions in Japanese Behçet’s disease patients are linked to worse quality of life, even after accounting for disease symptoms.

Contribution

The study identifies specific social participation issues that independently affect quality of life in BD patients, beyond disease-related symptoms.

Findings

SF-36 scores were significantly lower in patients with participation restrictions, especially in shopping, housework, and relationships.

Basic interpersonal relationships and community life were strongly associated with reduced mental and physical quality of life scores.

Regression analysis confirmed that social participation issues predict lower quality of life, independent of BD symptoms.

Abstract

Patients with Behçet’s disease (BD) have a variety of symptoms, and the exacerbation of these symptoms affects their daily life and social participation and reduces their quality of life (QOL). This study aimed to clarify the relationship between social participation and QOL in BD patients.

The BD-checklist 92 and 36-item Short Form Survey (SF-36) questionnaires were mailed to 10 affiliates. A total of 174 patients with BD completed the questionnaire. The patients were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of problems in each “participation” category of the BD-checklist 92, and the SF-36 scores were compared. Subsequently, a correlational analysis was used to examine the relationship between the number of problem categories extracted from “participation” and scores on the eight subscales of the SF-36. Multiple regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with SF-36 scores.

The SF-36 subscale scores were significantly lower in patients with problems in the participation category, particularly in those with difficulties in shopping, housework, relationships with friends and family, and community activities. A multiple regression analysis revealed that “basic interpersonal relationships” and “community life” were associated with the SF-36 subscales “role physical”, “social functioning”, “role emotional”, and “mental health”.

This study showed that despite excluding the effects of BD-specific primary and secondary symptoms, problems with basic interpersonal relationships, such as those with friends and family, and restricted community activities were associated with reduced QOL.