The severity and predictors of functional disability and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a cohort of South Africans with early RA were investigated. Methods: Changes in the Health Assessment Questionnaire-disability index (HAQ) and the Short Form-36 (SF-36) following 12 months of traditional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) were studied in previously DMARD-naïve adults with disease duration ≤ 2 years. Results: The majority of the 171 patients were female (82%), black

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... icans (89%) with a mean (SD) symptom duration of 11.6 (7.0) months. In the 134 patients seen at 12 months, there were significant improvements in the HAQ and all domains of the SF-36, but 92 (69%) still had substantial functional disability (HAQ >0.5), and 89 (66%) had suboptimal mental health (SF-36 mental composite score <66.6). Multivariate analysis showed that female sex (p=0.05) and high baseline HAQ (p<0.01) predicted substantial functional disability at 12 months. Unemployment