Background Young adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) often have an active disease with significant functional impairment in adulthood that can affect their physical and mental functions.

Objectives The aim of the study was to determine the impact of JIA on quality of life, mental and physical health in young adults with JIA during the transition healthcare in Ukraine.

Methods The cross-sectional study of 89 young adults aged 16 to 22 years with a history of JIA and 25 age- and sex-matched controls (without rheumatic disease) were included. The study was performed at the Aleksandrivsky Central Clinical Hospital, Kyiv, Ukraine in the period between April 2015 and February 2017. There was performed an evaluation of the disease activity by JADAS, received therapy, quality of life by the SF36, the functional activity (HAQ), long-term JIA damage indices JADI-A and JADI-E,¹ PHQ-9, Beck depression scale.

Results Patients with JIA had worse (p<0.001) physical health in comparison with the control group. Physical (p<0.001) and role (p<0.05) functioning and bodily pain (p<0.001) in JIA patients were decreased, compared with the controls. However, the indicators responsible for psychological function in patients with JIA did not differ from the controls. The analysis of functional activity revealed a strong negative effect of the disease on physical role functioning (p<0.001), bodily pain (p<0.001), general health (p<0.001), vitality (p<0.001), social role functioning (p<0.001), and mental health (p<0.001), which are included in physical (p<0.001) and mental (p<0.05) health. HAQ had strong negative effects on physical functioning (r=−0.56, p<0.001), role function (r=−0.33, p<0.001), bodily pain (r =-0,60, p<0.001), general health (r=-0,40, p=0.01), vitality (r=-0,46, p<0.001), social functioning (r=−0.48, p<0.001) and mental health (r=−0.42, p<0.001). Articular long-term damages (JADI-A) have a predominantly negative effect on the patient’s physical health (r=-0,27, p<0,05) and on the indices associated with it: physical functioning (r =-0,24, p<0.05), bodily pain (r=−0.24, p<0.05), general health (r=−0.24, p<0.05), vitality (r=−0.19, p<0.05), social functioning (r=−0.27,p<0.05), mental health (r=−0.22, p<0.05). While the extra-articular long-term damages – JADI-E also have a predominantly negative effect on the patient‘s physical health (r=−0.22, p<0.05) and on the indexes associated with it: physical functioning (r=-0,28,p<0,05), bodily pain (r=-0,20, p<0,05), general health (r=-0,23, p<0,05), mental health (r=−0.23, p<0.05), as well as a positive association with Beck depression scale (r=0,28, p<0.05) and PHQ-9 (r=0.28, p<0.05).

Conclusions In our transitional cohort of Ukrainian patients at the era of biological therapies, juvenile idiopathic arthritis had a larger effect on the physical than mental SF-36 subscale. Pain was the main factor influencing quality of life. Extra-articular long-term JIA damages have impact on physical and mental health of young adults. Additional evaluation of mental health by PHQ-9 and Beck depression scale is recommended for evaluation signs of depression in Ukrainian young adults in transition period.

Reference [1] Viola S, Felici E, Magni-Manzoni S, et al. Development and validation of a clinical index for assessment of long-term damage in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Arthritis Rheum2005;52:2092–102.

Disclosure of Interest None declared