Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire and the most commonly used clinical measures in a prospective cohort study of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients.
Methods: A total of 517 AS patients were collected from the Department of Rheumatology, Chinese PLA General Hospital from August 2013 to September 2015. The Quality of Life (QoL) was assessed by SF-36 questionnaire and compared with the general population. The correlations between QoL and clinical measures of AS, including the Bath AS disease activity index (BASDAI), Bath AS functional index (BASFI), Bath AS metrology index (BASMI) et al, were analyzed.
Results: BASDAI and BASFI were significantly correlated with SF-36 scores (r>0.3, P<0.01). Logistic multiple regression analysis showed that BASDAI, BASFI, BASMI and education had close correlation with the baseline global QoL, physical and mental health. Among these clinical measures, BASDAI variation showed the most important influence on the change of global QoL, physical health and mental health (OR=0.235, 0.209, 0.125; P<0.01).
Conclusions: SF-36 can objectively reflect the QoL of patients with AS. Clinical measures such as BASDAI and BASFI show great application value in this prospective cohort study of AS patients.