Background Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) specific quality of life scales have been widely criticized so a new AS-specific quality of life scale, (EASi-QoL), was developed.

Objectives The aim of the current study is to determine the validity and reliability of the modified Turkish version of the EASi-QoL.

Methods A total of 100 patients with AS were included in the study. The ESR and CRP levels were measured as laboratory tests. Pain severity, the global assessment of the patient and the physician were performed on VAS. Disease activity was determined by BASDAI and ASDAS. MASES was used to evaluate the enthesopathy. BASFI was filled by the patients in order to determine the physical function. Mobility of the patients was determined BASMI-11. The ASQoL, was used in order to evaluate the quality of life of the patients. The EASi-QoL contains questions about physical function, disease activity, emotional well being and social participation. After the usual translation process the Turkish version of the EASi-QoL -QoL was administered to each participant twice with an interval of 72 hours. The EASi-QoL was compared with ASQoL, BASFI, BASDAI, ASDAS, BASMI, MASES, VAS, pain severity, global assessments of the patient and the physician,

Results The mean age of the patients was 38.15±9.87 years and the mean disease duration was 115.9±91.59 months. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the EASi-QoL was 0. 910 in the physical function 0.893 in the disease activity, 0.935 in the emotional well-being, and 0.930 in the social contribution categories (>0.7) indicating the high reliability of the scale. There was a strong positive correlation between four subcategories of the EASi-QoL (physical function, disease activity, emotional well-being and social contribution) and ASQoL, BASDAI, BASFI, and pain severity, patient global assessment (p<0.01). The relationship between EASi-QoL and BASMI and MASES revealed a weak correlation in the physical function and disease activity categories, and a moderate degree of correlation in the emotional well-being and social contribution categories (p<0.05). In the current study, we demonstrated a strong correlation between EASi-QoL and ASDAS-ESR and ASDAS-CRP scores (p<0.001).

Conclusions Our study demonstrated that the EASi-QoL, which evaluates four major components of quality of life in AS (i.e., physical function, disease activity, emotional well-being, and social contribution), was strongly correlated with ASQoL. The disease activity subcategory correlated strongly with BASDAI, and the physical function subcategory correlated well with BASFI. Therefore, we determined that the Turkish version of the EASi-QoL is a reliable and valid scale that can be used in clinical practice to evaluate the quality of life in detail in AS patients

References

1. Packham JC, Jordan KP, Haywood KL,Garratt AM, Healey EL. Evaluation of Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life questionnaire: responsiveness of a new patient-reported outcome measure.Rheumatology (Oxford) 2012 Apr;51 (4):707-14.

2. Haywood KL, Garratt AM, Jordan KP, Healey EL, Packham JC. Evaluation of ankylosing spondylitis quality of life (EASi-QoL): reliability and validity of a new patient-reported outcome measure. J Rheumatol 2010 Oct;37 (10):2100-9.

Disclosure of Interest None declared