Health-related quality of life assessed by gout impact scale (GIS) in Chinese patients with gout

<b><i>Objective:</i></b> The Gout Impact Scale (GIS) is a disease-specific health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) measurement for patients with gout. This study aimed to investigate the quality of life in Chinese patients with gout and potential risk factors for poorer HR-QoL by GIS. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Adults with gout from February 2017 to February 2019 were invited to complete a questionnaire containing the GIS, social demographic characteristics, clinical information and gout-specific questions. Pearson/Spearman correlation and linear regression were used to analyze the data. <b><i>Results:</i></b> A total of 413 patients were included in the analysis (mean age, 51.85 years; 96.4% male). The mean (SD) score of GIS total was 56.79 ± 15.45. Worse gout-specific HR-QoL was associated with anxiety (<i>P</i> &lt; 0.05), depression (<i>P</i> &lt; 0.05) and fatigue (<i>P</i> &lt; 0.05). The effectiveness and global satisfaction of Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM) were negatively related to each dimension of GIS. Age (B=-0.251, <i>P</i> = 0.013), fatigue (B = 1.850, <i>P</i> &lt; 0.001) and depression (B = 9.068, <i>P</i> = 0.042) were independent predictors of GIS total score. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Gout-specific HR-QoL is impaired by social demographic and clinical characteristics, highlighting the importance of psychological factors (fatigue and depression) and patient-reported outcomes (patients’ satisfaction and confidence in gout treatment). These findings suggest that more studies should focus on disease-specific HR-QoL.