Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Pediatrics

Back ground: Juvenile onset systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) is an autoimmune disease with multi organs affection character, it almost associated with auto-antibodies formation. JSLE patients are treated with corticosteroids more frequent than adults making them more liable for being obese. Objective: Evaluating the effects of obesity on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measures in Juvenile-onset SLE (JSLE). Methods: This study included 104 JSLE patients and 104 apparently healthy children as controls, both were collected from Rheumatology and collagen vascular diseases clinic at Cairo University specialized children's' hospital and outpatients clinic at Abo El-Reesh El-Mounira children's' hospital respectively. Both groups are subjected to full history taking, anthropometric measurements; defying obese patient with BMI more than 95th centile. In a secondary analysis, the domain and summary scores of pediatric quality of life Rheumatology module (PedsQL-RM) of obese jSLE patients were compared to those of non-obese jSLE patients as well as historical obese and non-obese healthy controls. Mixed-effects modeling were performed to evaluate the relationship between obesity and HRQOL measures. Results: Among 104 JSLE patients, 34.5% (n=36) were obese. Obesity had a significant negative impact on HRQOL in JSLE. Obese JSLE patients had lower score in all domains of HRQOL compared to non-obese JSLE patients, and to non-obese and obese healthy controls Conclusion: Our study demonstrated the negative impact of obesity on patient-reported outcomes in JSLE. This supports the importance of weight management for the therapeutic plan of JSLE

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