Fadiga e capacidade funcional em pacientes com lúpus eritematoso sistêmico, prevalência e fatores associados

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that affects several organs and is associated with fatigue. Moreover, the carrier of this disease suffers losses in the activities of daily living with compromised functional capacity, low muscle strength, and postural instability. Moreover, with the evolution of the disease, an increased risk of falling is observed, as well as the incidence of poor physical fitness. OBJECTIVES: To verify the prevalence of fatigue, to investigate conditions related to low functional capacity in patients with SLE and their association with clinical and sociodemographic factors. METHODOLOGY: Cross-sectional study, carried out in patients diagnosed with SLE at the Hospital Universitário Professor Alberto Antunes of the Universidade Federal de Alagoas. We used sociodemographic questionnaires, fatigue severity scale, SLEDAI, SLICC and for functional capacity (FC) we applied the handgrip, static balance and sit and stand 5 times (SLC5x) tests. The processes of tabulation, descriptive and inferential analyses, and association tests between functional capacity and physical exercise with disease activity, occupational situation, BMI and physical activity and the other variables were carried out. RESULTS; The sample was composed of 101 women with a mean age of 38.5 ±12.0, with 9.2 ±6.6 years of disease diagnosis, BMI 25.7 ±4.9 and 7.9 ± 3.8 years of education, 77.2% sedentary and prevalence of functional disability of 92.1%. There was an association of FC with the SLC5x, right handgrip and left handgrip tests. Regarding fatigue, the prevalence was 66.3%; the mean fatigue score was 37.2 ±16.9. EF was associated with disease activity, SLC5X and fatigue. In logistic regression, non practitioners of PE were 3 times more likely to have the presence of fatigue and 5 times more likely to have a low functional capacity. CONCLUSION: The practice of physical exercise has been shown to have an important influence on good functional capacity in activities of daily living, and corroborates the literature on the need for an adequate prescription of physical activity for patients with SLE, in order to minimize the loss of functional capacity.