The purpose of this study is to assess and describe the quality of life of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and to compare patients’ quality of life among patients with different related factors, including age, marital status, education, income, employment, duration of disease, method of medical payment, and severity of disease . The initial questionnaire consisted of 47 items on quality of life and was tested at the Allergy Immunology and Rheumatology Unit of Ramathibodi Hospital. After the pretest, items were dropped out and adjusted accordingly. Only 38 items were selected for the study. The target population of this research was 159 women with systemic lupus erythematosus who were taking treatment at Ramathibodi Hospital and data were collected from October 1999 to June 2000. The mean scores on quality of life were compared among different groups in terms of related factors using MANOVA. The results from the factor analysis showed that seven factors accounted for 65.60 percent of the variance. These seven factors were physical symptoms, anxiety, depression, stress, concerns, family support and life satisfaction domains. Twenty-four items were included in these seven domains with a Cronbach’ s alpha value of 0.8617. This analysis indicated that educational level and family income were related to the quality of life. The results showed that the mean scores on quality of life were higher in more highly educated patients (p=. 025) and in the group whose family income was more than 20,000 Baht/month (p=. 001). As this study only sampled female patients, it is suggested that future research target male patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

M.Sc. BIOSTATISTICS มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล ปี 2544

Quality of life, Family, functioning, SATISFACTION, SUPPORT, PHYSICAL, ERYTHEMATOSUS, LUPUS, PSYCHOLOGICAL