Background Quality of life, function and emotional status of inpatients with rheumatic diseases may be estimated worse than outpatients. Previous studies had shown that there was a worsening in the emotional state of inpatients (1).

Objectives The aim of this study is to compare the quality of life, functional and emotional status in inpatients and outpatients with rheumatic diseases.

Methods The study included 78 patients (inpatient, n = 31; outpatient, n = 47) with rheumatic disease. The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) (2) and SF-36 (3) were used to evaluate the functionality and quality of life, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) (4) was used to determine their emotional status. The variables were investigated using visual and analytical methods to determine whether or not they are normally disturbed. Since physical function, mental health and general health perception values of SF-36 and HADS-Anxiety were normally distributed, the Students T-test was used to compare these parameters between two groups. Physical role limitation, pain, social status, emotional difficulty, energy viability of SF-36, HAQ and HADS-Depression were not normally distributed. Thus, Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare these scores between two groups.

Results The mean age of the subjects (n = 78) included in the study was 46.09 13.89 years and the mean BMI was 27.59 15.08. There was a significant difference in depression, anxiety and pain and social functioning sub-parameters of SF-36 (p <0.005) but there was no significant difference in other parameters (p> 0.005).

Conclusion It was thought that during the period of admission to the hospital, inpatients should be supported in terms of pain management, social functioning and anxiety and, depression as well as taking medication. Besides, caregivers in hospitals should encourage inpatients with regard to maintaining physical activity.

Disclosure of Interests None declared