Productivity at work and quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Background: The aim of this study was to determine which combination of personal, disease-related and environmental factors is best associated with at-work productivity loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to determine whether at-work productivity loss is associated with the quality of life for these patients. Methods: This study is based on cross-sectional data. Patients completed a questionnaire with personal, disease-related and environmental factors (related to the work environment), and clinical characteristics were obtained from patient medical records. At-work productivity loss was measured with the Work Limitations Questionnaire, and quality of life with the RAND 36. Using linear regression analyses, a multivariate model was built containing the combination of factors best associated with at-work productivity loss. This model was cross-validated internally. We furthermore determined whether at-work productivity loss was associated with quality of life using linear regression analyses. Results: We found that at-work productivity loss was associated with workers who had poorer mental health, more physical role limitations, were ever treated with a biological therapeutic medication, were not satisfied with their work, and had more work instability (R-2 = 0.50 and R-2 following cross-validation was 0.32). We found that at-work productivity loss was negatively associated with health-related quality of life, especially with dimensions of mental health, physical role limitations, and pain. Conclusions: We found that at-work productivity loss was associated with personal, work-related, and clinical factors. Although our study results should be interpreted with caution, they provide insight into patients with RA who are at risk for at-work productivity loss.