Sleep Quality and Fatigue in Egyptian Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Abstract
Background: Pain, fatigue & sleep disturbance have been linked to lower quality of life & reduced survival among patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).
Aim of study: Assessment of sleep abnormality, pain and fatigue symptoms among RA patients and their relations with disease activity and other patient characteristic data.
Subjects and Methods: Eighty-four patients with RA fulfilling the 2010 American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/ European League Against Rheumatism classification criteria were enrolled in the study. Disease activity as evaluated by Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28). Sleep quality was assessed by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), pain intensity was measured by Visual Analog Scale (VAS), while fatigue was assessed by Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS).
Results: The mean age of the participants was 45±8 years, the mean Disease Activity score (DAS28) was 4.2±1.3, the patients had poor sleep quality with the mean PSQI was 0.9±  1.2, the mean VAS score was 7±2.39 and the mean FSS was 5.13±1.75. Strong correlations were found between the DAS28 score and each of PSQI, FSS, and VAS (r-value 0.75, 0.85 & 0.74 respectively) with p-value (0.02, 0.001 and 0.03 respec-tively).
Conclusion: Sleep disturbances and fatigue were com-monly noticed in RA patients due to interaction of pain and disease activity.