Work productivity and activity in patients with SAPHO syndrome: a cross-sectional observational study

BACKGROUND: Our understanding of work productivity impairment among patients with synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis (SAPHO) syndrome is limited. The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of work productivity loss in SAPHO syndrome patients through the use of the work productivity and activity impairment (WPAI) questionnaire, as well as to investigate the relationship between the WPAI and other disease-related indicators. METHODS: Patients for this cross-sectional study were recruited from Peking Union Medical College Hospital (Beijing, China). The questionnaires incorporating the WPAI were administered, along with the inclusion of demographic data, disease-specific measures, and general health variables. The construct validity of the WPAI was evaluated via the correlations between WPAI outcomes and other measures. Wilcoxon rank-sum tests and nonparametric Kruskal‒Wallis tests were used for the comparison of the WPAI outcomes between known groups. RESULTS: A total of 376 patients were included, and 201 patients (53.5%) were employed. The medians (interquartile range [IQR]) of absenteeism, presenteeism, work productivity loss, and activity impairment were 0% (0–13%), 20% (0–40%), 20% (0–52%), and 30% (0–50%), respectively. All of the WPAI outcomes showed moderate to strong correlations with other generic and disease-specific measures (|r| = 0.43–0.75), except for absenteeism. Increasing disease activity and worse health status were significantly associated with increased impairments of work productivity and activity. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the negative effects of SAPHO syndrome on the work productivity and activity of patients, thus indicating good construct validity and discriminative ability of the WPAI. To reduce the economic burden, it is important to improve the work productivity and daily activity of patients by ameliorating clinical care. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13023-022-02523-2.