Introduction:

Pompe disease is a rapidly progressive, multisystemic genetic disease that causes muscle involvement (skeletal, cardiac and smooth), severe hypotonia and difficulty in swallowing. Due to the nature of the disease, the quality of life may be more affected compared to the general population.

Method:

A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out. A survey-type instrument was designed with questions of sociodemographic characterization and those referring to the disease. To measure Quality of Life, the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form (SF-36) questionnaire was applied. A comparison was made between groups with a significance level of 0,05.

Results:

27 surveys of patients from six countries were obtained. The mean age 40.52 years, women 59 %, married 51 %, 63 % active in employment, with a mean age of diagnosis of 30.3 years (SD = 15,557). The dimension with the lowest mean was the Physical Role (10.2; 95 % CI = 1.5 - 21.9), while the one with the highest mean was the Mental Health dimension (65.5; 95 % CI = 56.9 - 74.0). 29.7 % (95 % CI = 11.2 - 48.0) of those surveyed considered they felt in worse health conditions than the previous year.

Discussion:

Low quality of life is evidenced in patients with PD in comparison to the general population described in other studies using the same questionnaire.

Conclusions:

A low quality of life is evidenced in the study individuals where the dimensions related to the physical area were lower.

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