Sex-Specific Limitations in Physical Health in Primary Adrenal Insufficiency

BackgroundPatients with primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) suffer reduced quality of life (QoL), but comparisons with large-scale normative data are scarce. The clinical characteristics associated with reduced QoL are largely unknown.MethodsCross-sectional data on clinical characteristics and QoL scores from 494 patients were included. QoL was measured using RAND-36 (generic) and AddiQoL (-30 and -8, disease-specific). RAND-36 is reported as subdomain scores as well as physical (PCS) and metal (MCS) summary scores and compared with normative data.ResultsPerception of physical role was consistently decreased across age groups in patients with PAI compared with normative data [75 (0-100) vs. 100 (50-100), pvs. 100 (75-100), pvs. 100 (50-100), pvs. 82 ± 13, pvs. 80-89 years: PCS 59 [50-62] vs. 46 [37-53], pvs.. 45 (38-54), pvs. 50 (43-58), pConclusionQoL is reduced in patients with PAI, especially perception of physical role in women and social functioning in men. Among patients with PAI, female sex, higher age, non-autoimmune etiology, and autoimmune comorbidity was associated with lower QoL-scores.