Changes in Quality of Life Domains among Saudi Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most prevalent form of lupus. In this autoimmune disease, the immune system attacks the body's tissues, causing systemic damage and inflammation. This research aimed to measure the quality of life (QoL) among adult SLE patients before and during COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia. Methods and Results: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Riyadh City between November 2021 and March 2022. Data were collected from 192 patients (172 women and 20 men) with SLE via social media platforms (Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram) using the Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire. All eight QoL domains and overall health changes revealed significant differences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. For all scales and the single health change item, there was a decline in QoL; moreover, most show a decrease in the range of 10 points on the 100-point scale. None of the correlations between age and QoL measures were high. For both men and women, general health was reported to be better before COVID-19 than during the pandemic, as expected. Due to a much larger number of women than men in the study, the significance of that decline in general health resulted in a higher significance level for women (t = 5.69, P<0.001) than for men (t = 2.07, P<0.05). However, the Hedges’ g effect size estimate was higher for men (g=0.47) than for women (g=0.30). Conclusion: The QoL of SLE patients was generally lower before and even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic. This change is not correlated with any sociodemographic factors.

Keywords

• systemic lupus erythematosus
• covid-19
• sf-36
• quality of life
• saudi arabia