Patient Perception of Medical Care for Psoriatic Arthritis in North America and Europe: Results from a Global Patient Survey

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a disease that can cause joint pain and stiffness, and is often associated with a skin rash called psoriasis. These symptoms can affect quality of life, and patients and doctors should work together when choosing treatment. There has not been a lot of information on what patients think about their disease and their medicines. We found that patients from different regions and countries had different opinions, and that treatment of PsA can be improved. For example, patients in North America were more likely to say that their overall health was excellent or good, compared with patients in Europe. However, more patients in North America than in Europe described their PsA disease as severe. Similar numbers of patients in both regions experienced impacts on their social life due to their PsA, but patients in Europe were more likely to report that PsA affected their work life compared with patients in North America. More patients in North America than in Europe were satisfied with their medicines, but patients across all regions and countries still had symptoms even when they took medicines. Many patients also wished they had more options and wanted to change something about their medicines. These findings were based on an online survey. Patients from North America (Canada and the US) and Europe (France, Spain, and the UK) answered questions about their PsA disease and medicines. We only compared answers between patients from North America and Europe, and between countries within each region.