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Rheumatology
Original research
Foot health and quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional study
  1. Andres Reinoso-Cobo1,
  2. Gabriel Gijon-Nogueron2,
  3. Rafael Caliz-Caliz1,
  4. Miguel Angel Ferrer-Gonzalez1,
  5. Maria Teresa Vallejo-Velazquez1,
  6. Jose Miguel Morales-Asencio2,
  7. Ana Belen Ortega-Avila3
  1. 1Departamento de Reumatologia, Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, Granada, Spain
  2. 2Department Nursing and Podiatry, Universidad de Málaga, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA), Malaga, Spain
  3. 3Department Nursing and Podiatry, Universidad de Málaga, Malaga, Spain
  1. Correspondence to Dr Gabriel Gijon-Nogueron; gagijon{at}uma.es

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study is to identify foot health factors related to the quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Setting In this cross-sectional study, a total of 293 subjects were analysed, 229 of whom were in the RA group and 64 in the control group. In the RA group, 173 patients were female, and 50 in the control group.

Participants Patients with foot pain and RA (according to the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism 2010 rheumatoid arthritis classification criteria) and with foot pain but no RA were recruited (Granada, Spain).

Intervention Two researchers independently interviewed the patients to obtain data for the study.

Primary and secondary outcome measures Clinical data were obtained using the Short Form 12-Item questionnaire (quality of life) (primary outcome), Visual Analogue Scale for pain (VAS pain), the Manchester Foot Pain Disability Index (MFPDI) and the Foot Function Index (FFI). Anthropometric measurements were obtained using a foot measurement platform, the Foot Posture Index and the Manchester Scale of Hallux Valgus (secondary outcomes).

Results Of the 293 subjects, 76.1% were female. Significant differences were observed between the RA and the control group (p<0.001) with regard to VAS pain (general, foot and hand), MFPDI and FFI. In terms of anthropometric measurements, significant differences were only recorded for midfoot and forefoot width (p=0.03). For the physical health component, multivariable linear regression with the parameters age, gender, VAS pain (general) and the presence of RA presented an R2 value of 48.8%, while for the mental health component the corresponding value was 5.6%.

Conclusion Morphological and structural characteristics of the foot are not necessarily associated with pain, disability and loss of function. The presence of RA, a higher score on VAS pain (general), female gender and older age are all associated with the physical component of the quality of life of patients with RA.

  • rheumatology
  • foot & ankle
  • primary care
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-036903

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors Conceptualisation: GG-N, RC-C, JMM-A and ABO-A. Data curation: AR-C. Formal analysis: GG-N, JMM-A and ABO-A. Methodology: GG-N, RC-C, MAF-G and ABO-A. Project administration: MTV-V. Writing of original draft: AR-C, GG-N and ABO-A. Review and editing: AR-C, GG-N, RC-C, JMM-A and ABO-A.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Obtained.

    • Ethics approval The study was approved by the Medical Research Ethics Committee of the University of Malaga (CEUMA-91-2015H) and PEIBA Andalucia (ARC0001), Spain.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement No data are available.