Rheumatoid arthritis and sleep quality

• Main Authors: Ana Claudia Janiszewski Goes, Larissa Aparecida Busatto Reis, Marilia Barreto G. Silva, Barbara Stadler Kahlow, Thelma L. Skare
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Reumatologia
• Series: Revista Brasileira de Reumatologia
• Subjects: Artrite reumatoide; Sono; Apneia do sono; Depressão; Dor
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0482-50042017000400294&lng=en&tlng=en

ABSTRACT Background: Sleep disturbances are common in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and contribute to loss of life quality. Objective: To study associations of sleep quality with pain, depression and disease activity in RA. Methods: This is a transversal observational study of 112 RA patients submitted to measurement of DAS-28, Epworth scale for daily sleepiness, index of sleep quality by Pittsburg index, risk of sleep apnea by the Berlin questionnaire and degree of depression by the CES-D (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale) questionnaire. We also collected epidemiological, clinical, serological and treatment data. Results: Only 18.5% of RA patients had sleep of good quality. In univariate analysis a bad sleep measured by Pittsburg index was associated with daily doses of prednisone (p = 0.03), DAS-28 (p = 0.01), CES-D (p = 0.0005) and showed a tendency to be associated with Berlin sleep apnea questionnaire (p = 0.06). In multivariate analysis only depression (p = 0.008) and Berlin sleep apnea questionnaire (p = 0.004) kept this association. Conclusions: Most of RA patients do not have a good sleep quality. Depression and risk of sleep apnea are independently associated with sleep impairment.