الفهرس 
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Abstract
In this work, forty patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, 32 females and 8 males, diagnosed according to the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) Classification Criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus. Their age ranged from 18-54 years with a mean of 31 years. The disease duration ranged from 1- 15 years with a mean of 3 years. Forty healthy adults of matched age and sex were used as a control group.
We assessed the disease activity using SLEDAI and according to the score we classified the patients ashaving mild, moderate, severe and very severe disease activity. A SLEDAI score ranged from 1 to 10 is indicative of mild disease activity, a SLEDAI score ranged from 11 to 20 is indicative of moderate disease activity, a SLEDAI score ranged from 21 to 45 is indicative of severe disease activity, whereas a SLEDAI more than 45 is indicative of very severe disease activity.
We assessed the quality of life using the SF-36 questionnaire, in which the low score is consistent with impaired quality of life, and also the SLEQOL questionnaire in which the high score is consistent with impaired quality of life.
In our study the patients showed significant impaired quality of life, as assessed by SF-36, in comparison to controls, as we found that the total score of SF-36 and its all domains were lower in the patients as compared to the controls.
The increase in the disease activity, as assessed by SLEDAI, was significantly associated with more impairment of the quality of life , as we found that the total score of SF-36 significantly decreases with the increase of the disease activity and the SLEQOL score significantly increases with the increase of the disease activity.
The increase in the age of the patients was associated with more impairment of the quality of life but the association was not significant. As we found thatthe increase in the age was associated with decrease in the total SF-36 score and increase in the SLEQOL score.
We found that there is no association between the disease duration and the quality of life
Conclusion
• SLE patients have more significantly impaired quality of life, as assessed by SF-36, and SLEQOL than the controls.
• The increase in the disease activity, as assessed by SLEDAI was significantly associated with more impaired quality of life as assessed by SF-36 and SLEQOL.
• The increase in the age of patients was associated withmore impaired quality of life as assessed by SF-36 and SLEQOL.
• There was no relation between the impaired quality of life in lupus patients and the disease duration.
Recommendations
We recommend that:
- Use of SF-36 questionnaire and SLEQOL questionnaire in clinical trials studies of SLE patients to evaluate the burden of all aspects of SLE on patients’ life as a chronic disease.
- Assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) alongside measure of disease activity provides a more comprehensive and holistic picture of the patient and their disease.