Health-related quality of life of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in Asia: how can this be improved?

The multicultural and multilinguistic landscape in Asia poses interesting challenges in the assessment and improvement of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in Asian patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This article highlights some of these challenges and addresses the issue of how to improve HRQoL of these patients by: (1) framing important concepts in HRQoL in relation to the chronic relapsing nature and multisystem involvement in this condition; (2) discussing ways to improve measurement of HRQoL of SLE patients in Asia by reviewing existing HRQoL instruments (both generic (i.e. the SF-36) and disease-specific (i.e. the L-QoL, LupusQoL, SLEQoL and SLE Symptom Checklist)) and item banking; and (3) discussing approaches to improving HRQoL in SLE.