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Objective: Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an auto- immune disorder. Long-term complications of the disease include decreased quality of life. The measurement of quality of life in the patients with chronic disease has become an important research topic during the last years. We aimed to evaluate life quality of the FMF patients the short form 36 health survey questionnaire (SF-36), and examine its relationship with the disease parameters.
Methods: One hundred voluntary patients (69 female, 31 male) admitted to the rheumatology clinic were included in the study. The control group consisted of 100 healthy individuals. All subjects in the study were asked to completeSF-36. Age of onset of FMF, age at diagnosis, age at the beginning of colchicine therapy, number of attacks per month, family history of FMF and dialysis were inquired to FMF patients. Disease severity was rated using the FMF severity score.
Results: The mean age of the patient group was 31±12 years and that of the control group was 29±9. Sixty-nine patients (69%) were female, and 31 patients were male (31%) in both groups. The mean scores of the physical function, physical role function, emotional role function, mental health, and general health parameters of the patients were statistically significantly lower than those of healthy volunteers (p<0.05). The difference in social function and vitality between two groups was found to be insignificant (p>0.05).
Conclusion: We have shown that FMF had a negative impact on SF-36. FMF reduces quality of life both in physical and mental dimensions.