Background Scleroderma is a multisystemic chronic disease with hand involvement in many patients and responsible for marked disability. Patients with scleroderma have reduced ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL) and several factors may be associated with difficulties in ADL and impairment of upper extremity functions.

Objectives Aim of this study was to indicate the relationship among activities of daily living and pain, fatigue, disease severity, upper extremity strength and functional disability in patients with scleroderma and to identify the factors affecting activities of daily living in individuals with scleroderma.

Methods Thirty five women individuals with scleroderma with mean age 56.46 10.45 were included into the present study. The activities of daily living was evaluated with Milliken ADL questionnaire, pain with visual analog scale (VAS), fatigue with fatigue severity scale (FSS), disease severity with modified Rodnan score (MRS), upper extremity strength with handgrip strength and functional disability with Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). The relationships among the variables were analyzed by the Spearman correlation test. Correlation coefficients between Milliken ADL and other variables were determined by linear regression. The statistics were analyzed by SPPS 23.0 version.

Results The Milliken ADL did not significantly correlated with MRS and VAS (p > 0.05), whereas Milliken ADL did significantly correlated with handgrip strength (r = 0.680, p = 0.001), FSS (r = - 0.729, p = 0.001), HAQ (r = - 0.867, p = 0.001). Additionally, handgrip strength, fatigue severity scale and HAQ were significant and independent determinants for activities of daily living, accounting for 95.0% of the variance in Milliken ADL in patients with scleroderma.

Conclusion The findings of this study show that scleroderma patients daily life is affected by the disease at different levels. Impaired hand function and difficulties in the performance of ADL are common in scleroderma and may influence an individuals functional disability. Therefore, provide therapeutic interventions at the optimal time it is important to follow the development of these factors in the early stages of the disease.

Disclosure of Interests None declared