Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Peter GallagherORCiD, Sheryl Mitchell, Dr Bridget Griffiths, Vicki Hindmarsh, Ben Hargreaves, Dr Steven Young-Min, Professor Fai NgORCiD, Dr Lucy RobinsonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Background: There is a weak relationship between subjective symptoms and objective markers of disease activity in individuals with Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome (PSS). This presents a significant barrier to developing treatments if modifying disease markers does not translate into reduced perception of symptoms. Little is known about the reasons for this discrepancy. Objectives: To develop a novel method for capturing the discrepancy between objective tests and subjective dryness symptoms (a ‘Sensitivity’ scale) and to explore predictors of dryness Sensitivity. Methods: Archive data from the UK Primary Sjogren’s Syndrome Registry (n=681) was used. Patients were classified on a scale from -5 (stoical) to +5 (sensitive) depending on the degree of discrepancy between their objective and subjective symptoms classes. Sensitivity scores were correlated with demographic variables, disease-related factors and symptoms of pain, fatigue, anxiety and depression. Results: Patients were on average relatively stoical for both dryness symptoms (ocular mean±s.d. -0.42±2.2, oral mean±s.d. -1.24±1.6). Twenty-seven percent of patients were classified ‘sensitive’ to ocular dryness in contrast to 9% for oral dryness. Hierarchical regression analyses identified the strongest predictor of ocular dryness was self-reported pain and the strongest predictor of oral dryness was selfreported fatigue.
Author(s): Bezzina OM, Gallagher P, Mitchell S, Bowman SJ, Griffiths B, Hindmarsh V, Hargreaves B, Price EJ, Pease CT, Emery P, Lanyon P, Bombardieri M, Sutcliffe N, Pitzalis C, Hunter J, Gupta M, McLaren J, Cooper AM, Regan M, Giles IP, Isenberg DA, Vadivelu S, Coady D, Dasgupta B, McHugh NJ, Young-Min SA, Moots RJ, Gendi N, Akil M, MacKay K, Ng WF, Robinson LJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Arthritis Care & Research
Year: 2017
Volume: 69
Issue: 11
Pages: 1714-1723
Print publication date: 01/11/2017
Online publication date: 19/12/2016
Acceptance date: 06/12/2016
Date deposited: 15/02/2017
ISSN (print): 2151-464X
ISSN (electronic): 2151-4658
Publisher: Wiley
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acr.23165
DOI: 10.1002/acr.23165
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
