Abstract
The importance of measuring quality of life (QOL) has increased with greater emphasis on efficiency and on judgements of clinical effectiveness of therapies for patients with chronic disease. We measured QOL of rheumatoid arthritic patients using Kawai's method. This method was very simple and it took only a few minutes to answer the questions. In our study, QOL score correlated with the duration of rheumatic diseases (r=0.46) and the Lansbury score (r=0.43). The difference of QOL score between stage III and IV in Steinbrocker classification was significant (p<0.05). Also the difference between class II and III was significant (p<0.05). These results were similar to those using other complex methods. Kawai's method appears to be useful for evaluation of QOL of rheumatoid arthritic patients in outpatient clinics.
