Author(s): Bektas Murat Yalcin
Objective: We aimed to investigate the effect of smoking on the life quality of patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Ankylosing spondylitis (AS).
Materials and Method: Our study was carried out on 79 (54.5%) RA and 66 (45.5%) AS patients that were followed by Ondokuz Mayis University Medical Faculty Hospital between March 2014 and July 2014. Since these patients were grouped as study (smokers) and control (non-smokers). Both of these groups were applied a questionnaire including certain demographic features, disease history, SF-36 and EQ-5D general quality of life scale. Both groups’ quality of life is compared with each other.
Findings: Of the 145 patients, 54.5% (n=79) of the participants were females. The mean age of RA and RA patients was found as 49.6 ± 12.9 years and 39.5 ± 12.7 years (t=4.712, p<0.001). 39.2 % of the RA and 50.0% of the AS patients were active smokers. The average cigarette consumption of RA and AS patients was 17.94 ± 14.73 and 13.03 ± 9.50 packet/year respectively. First symptoms of disease were initiated 5 years earlier in RA and 7 years in AS patients who smoked patients compared with no smokers (Respectively t=2.214, t=1.9965, p<0.001). There was no statistical difference between the scores of SF-36, sub-groups of SF-36 and EQ-5D scale between smoker and non-smoker RA and AS patients (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Although we found no relation between quality of life and smoking in RA and AS patients, our study revealed that smoker AR and AS patients' initial symptoms begin much earlier compared with non-smokers. More studies needed to investigate the effects of smoking in AR and AS patients are needed.
