Oral Ulcers Affect Quality Of Life In Behçet’s Disease

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the quality of life in Turkish patients with Behçet’s Disease. Methods: Sixty nine patients with Behcet’s Disease (F/M: 33/36, mean age:32.1±7.8 years), 17 patients with recurrent aphtous stomatitis (F/M: 9/8, 32.1±9.3 yrs) and 70 Turkish healthy controls (F/M: 57/57, 34.2±12.3 yrs) were included in the study. Both clinical manifestations and oral health of patients with Behcet’s Disease were evaluated in Behcet’s Disease Clinics of the Marmara and Cerrahpasa Medical Schools in Istanbul. Quality of life was evaluated by oral health impact profile-14 (OHIP-14), oral health related quality of life (OHQoL) and short form-36 (SF-36) questionnaires. Forward-backwards translations were carried out and reliabilities of them were assessed. Internal reliabilities of questionnaires were found to be high: Cronbach’s alpha= 0.93 for OHIP, 0.92 for OHRQoL and 0.90 for SF-36 in the study. Results: The mean scores of OHQoL and subscales of SF-36 as physical functioning, role, physical, bodily pain, general health and vitality were significantly higher in healthy controls than Behcet’s Disease patients (p<0.05), although no significant difference was observed between patients with Behcet’s Disease and recurrent apthous stomatitis (p>0.05). In addition, the mean score of OHIP-14 was significantly worse in patients with Behcet’s Disease than healthy controls (p=0.000) and in patients with active oral ulcers compared to patients without ulcers in Behcet’s Disease (p=0.005). Similarly, scores of OHQoL and vitality of patients having active oral ulcers were significantly lower than patients without ulcers (p=0.001 and p=0.025, respectively). Conclusions: The quality of life is negatively affected in patients with Behcet’s Disease. Since oral ulcers are related with impaired oral quality of life and vitality, they should be eliminated to improve the quality of life in Behcet’s Disease patients. Key word: Oral ulceration, quality of life, OHIP, OHQoL, SF-36, Behçet’s disease.