Respiratory medicine
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Respiratory medicine · Apr 2015
The effect of corticosteroids on quality of life in a sarcoidosis clinic: the results of a propensity analysis.
Both sarcoidosis and its treatment may worsen health related quality of life (HRQoL). We performed a propensity analysis of sarcoidosis-specific HRQoL patient reported outcome measures (PRO) to disentangle the effects of sarcoidosis and corticosteroid therapy on HRQoL in sarcoidosis outpatients. ⋯ Our cohort of sarcoidosis clinic patients who received ≤500 mg of prednisone in the previous year had an improved HRQoL compared to patients receiving >500 mg on the basis of two sarcoidosis-specific PROs after adjusting for severity of illness. These data support the need to measure HRQoL in sarcoidosis trials, and suggest that the search should continue for effective alternative medications to corticosteroids.