Obesity Weighs on Outcomes in Women With SLE

Jun 04, 2018

A potentially modifiable target for improving outcomes in patients with lupus.

Reference1. Patterson SL, Schmajuk G, Jafri K, Yazdany J, Katz P. Obesity independently associates with worse patient-reported outcomes in women with systemic lupus erythematosus. Arthritis Care Res. 2018 May 8. doi: 10.1002/acr.23576. [Epub ahead of print]

Patricia Katz, PhD, and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, found that women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and high body mass index (BMI) or fat mass index (FMI) reported worse outcomes, such as increased disease activity, depression, pain, and fatigue.¹

Scroll through the slides for the details of the study and the take-home points for clinicians.

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Poor patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in persons with SLE often include complaints of pain, fatigue, and depression.

Obesity was defined in the study as fat mass index (FMI) ≥ 13 kg/m² or body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m².

FMI, fat mass index; SF-36, Short Form 36 Health Survey; SLAQ, Systemic Lupus Activity Questionnaire.

The finding that one-third of the women with SLE in the study were obese underscores the need for aggressive weight reduction strategies for these women.

To help motivate obese female patients with SLE to lose weight, tell them that weight reduction may also improve lupus symptoms.