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Work productivity in Behçet syndrome
Nergis Serin1, Yesim Ozguler1,2, Sinem Nihal Esatoglu1,2
1Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Cerrahpaşa Medical School, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Istanbul, Türkiye.
Objectives:
Behçet syndrome (BS) is a multisystem vasculitis that is most active during young adulthood. We aimed to evaluate work productivity and stability in patients with BS and compare it with diseased and healthy controls (HCs) in a cross-sectional study.
Methods:
We evaluated 125 consecutive patients with BS for work productivity and stability using the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI), Work Productivity Survey (WPS), and Work Instability Scale (WIS). The association of work productivity with demographic and disease features, including age, gender, education status, job type, disease duration, disease activity, health-related quality of life, and type of organ involvement was explored. Thirty patients with ankylosing spondylitis and 30 HCs were included as controls. Patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and BS were evaluated with disease-specific activity indices.
Results:
Among the 125 patients with BS who were evaluated for work productivity, 53 (42%) reported absenteeism (mean 1.8 d/mo) and 60 (48%) reported presenteeism (mean 4.3 d/mo). WPAI, WPS and WIS scores were similar in patients with BS and AS and significantly impaired compared with HCs. Ocular, vascular, and nervous system involvement, disease activity, and higher Behçet disease quality-of-life scores were associated with work productivity impairment.
Conclusions:
Impaired work productivity is frequent in patients with BS and is associated with major organ involvement, disease activity, and impaired health-related quality of life. Work needs to be considered as a candidate domain for assessment in clinical trials of BS.
