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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1478376
This article is part of the Research Topic Innovative Teaching and Learning in Health Education and Promotion View all 7 articles

Health-related quality of life profiles in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a latent profile analysis

Provisionally accepted
Yuqing Song Yuqing Song 1Yanling Chen Yanling Chen 2*Liting Wen Liting Wen 3*Benyi He Benyi He 4*Mei Liu Mei Liu 5*Fangmei Tang Fangmei Tang 1Li Wang Li Wang 6*Jianmei Wu Jianmei Wu 6*Xue Deng Xue Deng 1*Lu Xing Lu Xing 1*Wen Zhao Wen Zhao 1*
  • 1 West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
  • 2 West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 3 Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
  • 4 The First Hospital of Kunming, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
  • 5 People’s Hospital of Deyang City, Deyang, Sichuan Province, China
  • 6 Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common rheumatic disease that most commonly affects joints and negatively impacts individuals' health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Although some studies have explored HRQoL of RA patients, existing studies treated RA patients as a homogeneous group based on their overall HRQoL and ignore the heterogeneity of patients' HRQoL patterns. This study aimed to identify subgroups of RA patients based on their HRQoL and variables associated with group membership.This was a multi-center cross-sectional study conducted at 3 tertiary hospitals. All participants completed standardized questionnaires including demographic variables, HRQoL, physical function, disease activity and self-efficacy. Latent profile analysis was used to identify the optimal number of subgroups (profiles) and multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to explore variables associated with profile membership.The analysis revealed 3 profiles of RA patients: poor HRQoL (N=92, 60.9%), moderate HRQoL but poor role function (N=45, 29.8%), good HRQoL (N=14, 9.3%). Regression analysis revealed that patients with worse physical function were more likely to belong to "poor HRQoL" and "moderate HRQoL but poor role function" profile. Additionally, patients with junior high school or below educational level were less likely to belong to "moderate HRQoL but poor role function" profile.Conclusions: This study identified 3 profiles of HRQoL within RA patients and found that physical function and educational level was associated with HRQoL profiles. The finding can provide the basis for developing tailored interventions to specific subgroups of RA patients.

    Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis, Quality of Life, latent profile analysis, physical function, disease activity

    Received: 09 Aug 2024; Accepted: 02 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Song, Chen, Wen, He, Liu, Tang, Wang, Wu, Deng, Xing and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yanling Chen, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
    Liting Wen, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
    Benyi He, The First Hospital of Kunming, Kunming, 650000, Yunnan Province, China
    Mei Liu, People’s Hospital of Deyang City, Deyang, Sichuan Province, China
    Li Wang, Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
    Jianmei Wu, Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
    Xue Deng, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
    Lu Xing, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
    Wen Zhao, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.