Die Bedeutung der Lebensqualität bei Rheumatoider Arthritis (RA)

In recent years a number of novel substances have been introduced in the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). In the group of pain relieve drugs the group of coxib's should be mentioned above all, whom are believed in having a better risk profile with complications in the gastrointestinal area. The TNF-α antagonist's ethanercept, adalimumab and infliximab were added to the disease modifying drugs (DMARDs), which are designed to slow or stop a progression of RA. These new active substances are far more costly than comparators already in the market, which may be justified by a superior outcome, which is subject of a number of health economic evaluation studies to date. Those health-economic evaluations often try to model advantages of those novel substances in order to show the long-term effects on direct and indirect cost domains. The long term data needed for a high validity of the models is very limited. Therefore it is very important for medical groups in the field of RA, to learn more about certain aspects of the health related quality of life accompanied with different treatment regimens as a special field in health economics. Hence, we give the reader the methodical tools, so that results of quality of life studies in RA may be added and enrich the structure of health services given to patients in daily practice.