Work productivity loss due to flares in patients with chronic gout refractory to conventional therapy

Figures & data

Table 1.  Patient characteristics.

Characteristic	n (%)
Sample size	81 (100)
Age (years), mean = 61
<50	16 (20)
50–64	35 (43)
65–74	21 (26)
75+	9 (11)
Male	63 (78)
Acute attacks in year previous to baseline
0	0 (0)
1–2	12 (15)
3–6	51 (63)
>6	18 (22)
Tophi present	60 (74)
Chronic arthropathy	42 (52)
Chronically incapacitated*	24 (29)
Completed 12 months of follow-up	59 (73)

* Patients for whom physician responded yes to the question ‘Is the patient chronically incapacitated’?

Table 2.  Flares and activity loss.

	N	Mean	95% confidence interval	Median
Flares
8 mg given as an intravenous infusion every 2 weeks. (2.1)	65	8.8	7.0, 10.7	6
Duration (days)	63	5.3	4.2, 6.3	4
Severity*	64	5.7	5.1, 6.4	6
Work productivity for age <65 years
Patients with any loss	42	78%	65%, 88%	–
Days lost per year†	40	25.1	11.7, 38.6	12
Social activity
Patients with any loss	65	54%	43%, 65%	–
Days lost per year†	63	17.1	7.7, 26.7	4
Personal care
Patients with any loss%	65	52%	41%, 63%	–
Days lost per year†	63	16.9	7.7, 26.1	3

N number of patients with evaluable diary data.

*Scale is 0–10 with 10 being most severe.

†Average overall, including patients with no days lost.

Figure 1.  Patients by work days lost to flares, age <65 years, n = 40.

Table 3.  Mean activity days lost as a function of baseline number of flares per year.

Activity	Baseline number of flares per year*
	1–2	3–6	>6
Work† (n = 40)	19.3	19.4	51.9
Social (n = 63)	8.4	11.2	36.2
Personal care (n = 63)	11.3	14.0	31.1

*Patient recall for the year prior to study entry.

†Only those who were <65 years old are included.

Table 4.  Correlations* between SF-36 and diary-reported measures of activity loss, age <65 years, n = 40.

SF-36 measures†	Days lost calculated from diary report
	Work	Social	Personal care
Percentage of work time decreased due to physical health	0.54	0.39	0.39
Percentage of work time decreased due to emotional health	0.28	0.24	0.18
Physical or emotional problems interfered with social activity	0.37	0.40	0.36
Pain interfered with normal work or housework	0.34	0.39	0.35
Physical or emotional problems affected time on social activities	0.40	0.34	0.38

*Pearson correlation coefficients.

†Patient’s report on previous 4 weeks.