Quality of life in systemic sclerosis

Abstract

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic multi-system autoimmune disease associated with disability and reduced quality of life. There is no effective treatment or cure to SSc, so it is important improve global health of these patients and reduce morbidity and mortality associated with SSc. It was made a literature review about quality of life in patients with SSc, regarding the several factors that should be considered and evaluated when attending to SSc patients. It was also considered the validated scales and questionnaires used to measure outcomes in patients with SSc. We concluded that it is important to have an interdisciplinary approach to SSc patients considering the patient's cognitive representations of the disease and what they value most like mobility and hand function, pain, fatigue, sleep, depression and body image.

Keywords: Health-related quality of life measurement instruments; QoL; Quality of life; Scleroderma; Systemic sclerosis.