Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common chronic condition characterized by uncertain disease progression and an unpredictable course of exacerbations and remissions. Approximately 1–3% of the population in Western countries is affected by RA (1). Various interventions may alleviate its course, and patients come into contact with a large number and variety of health professionals. For many patients, pain, disability, deformity, and reduced quality of life persist in spite of treatment. There is room for new approaches to enhance current treatment effectiveness. Patient education is one such approach that is thought to be beneficial in helping patients cope with their disease and cooperate with its complex management (2,3). As with other chronic diseases, there is no cure for most types of arthritis, including RA. Furthermore, the disease course is often unpredictable and the symptoms that patients experience can vary from day to day or even from hour to hour. Because of the nature of pain and disability, the partial and inconsistent effects of treatment, and the unpredictability people with arthritis face on a daily basis, patient education programs have become a complement to traditional medical treatment (4). Thus, patient education programs have given people with arthritis the strategies and the tools necessary to make daily decisions to cope with the disease (5,6). Patient education has been defined as “any set of planned educational activities designed to improve patients health behaviors and/or health status” (7). Lorig has further stated “the purpose of patient education is to maintain or improve health, or, in some cases, to slow deterioration” (7). The focus of arthritis patient education programs is to teach patients to adjust their daily activities as dictated by disease symptoms. In other words, in addition to teaching patients what they should do, patients are also instructed on how to approach situations and to make adjustments that are appropriate for each individual and his or her own needs. There has been increasing research in the field of patient education, and major reviews of published studies have been conducted on the value of education in general (8) and, more recently, on education in arthritis (5,6,9,10). Two reviews on arthritis patient education reported combined effect estimates on main outcome measures, such as pain, functional disability, and psychological outcomes (9,10). Hawley reviewed 34 rheumatic disease patient education clinical trials performed between 1985 and 1995 (9). She reported average effect sizes for treatment groups compared with nonintervention controls for RA patient pain, functional ability, and depression at postintervention of 0.13, –0.16, and 0.01, respectivley; effect sizes for osteoarthritis (OA) patient pain, functional ability, and depression at postintervention were 0.44, 0.28, and 0.56, respectively (confidence intervals were not reported). These data show a trend to greater improvement for OA compared with RA patients (9). Superio-Cabuslay et al compared the effects of 19 patient education trials and 28 nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug trials between 1966 and 1993 among patients with OA and RA (10). They found an average effect size for treatment compared with nonintervention controls for RA patient pain and funcThis article is a summary of a Cochrane systematic review: Riemsma R, Kirwan J, Taal E, Rasker J. Patient education for adults with rheumatoid arthritis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2002;(3):CD003688. An editorial discussing the main results of the review has been published: Riemsma RP, Taal E, Kirwan JR, Rasker JJ. Patient education programmes for adults with rheumatoid arthritis [editorial]. BMJ 2002;325:558–9. The results of a Cochrane review can be interpreted differently, depending on people’s perspectives and circumstances. Please consider the conclusions presented carefully. They are the opinions of review authors, and are not necessarily shared by the Cochrane Collaboration. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Dutch Arthritis Association. Any errors are the responsibility of the authors. Supported by a grant from the Dutch Arthritis Association. Robert P. Riemsma, PhD: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, York, United Kingdom; Erik Taal, PhD: University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands; John R. Kirwan, BSc, MD: Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol, United Kingdom; Johannes J. Rasker, MD, PhD: University of Twente and Medisch Spectrum Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. Address correspondence to Robert P. Riemsma, PhD, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK. E-mail: rpr1@york.ac.uk. Submitted for publication July 4, 2003; accepted in revised form November 30, 2003. Arthritis & Rheumatism (Arthritis Care & Research) Vol. 51, No. 6, December 15, 2004, pp. 1045–1059 DOI 10.1002/art.20823 © 2004, American College of Rheumatology

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/art.20823

Systematic review of rheumatoid arthritis patient education.

Context. Self-management strategies for pain hold substantial promise as a means of reducing pain and improving function among older adults with chronic pain, but their use in this age group has not been well defined.

Objective.  To review the evidence regarding self-management interventions for pain due to musculoskeletal disorders among older adults.

Design.  We searched the Medline and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature databases to identify relevant articles for review and analyzed English-language articles that presented outcome data on pain, function, and/or other relevant endpoints and evaluated programs/strategies that could be feasibly implemented in the community. Abstracted information included study sample characteristics, estimates of treatment effect, and other relevant outcomes when present.

Results.  Retained articles (N = 27) included those that evaluated programs sponsored by the Arthritis Foundation and other programs/strategies including yoga, massage therapy, Tai Chi, and music therapy. Positive outcomes were found in 96% of the studies. Proportionate change in pain scores ranged from an increase of 18% to a reduction of 85% (median = 23% reduction), whereas change in disability scores ranged from an increase of 2% to a reduction of 70% (median = 19% reduction). Generalizability issues identified included limited enrollment of ethnic minority elders, as well as non-ethnic elders aged 80 and above.

Conclusions.  Our results suggest that a broad range of self-management programs may provide benefits for older adults with chronic pain. Research is needed to establish the efficacy of the programs in diverse age and ethnic groups of older adults and identify strategies that maximize program reach, retention, and methods to ensure continued use of the strategies over time.

/pdf/self-management-strategies-to-reduce-pain-and-improve-1z036chr9z.pdf

Self-management strategies to reduce pain and improve function among older adults in community settings: a review of the evidence

Predictors of Sexual Dysfunction Incidence and Remission in Men

Background. This research analyzes the impact of quality of life as a metavariable that conditions the health and social welfare of the elderly. The sample of this study is composed of 500 people, randomly selected from the major day centers for the elderly in the province of Granada (Spain). Method. For the inferential analysis, we used the CUBRECAVI questionnaire, which is a multidimensional scale of health and quality of life, along with the Katz and Garcia measure questionnaires, which are also applied to quality of life. Through the technique of the interview, we have distributed the participants into two groups: experimental and control. Results and Conclusions. Once the tests have been completed, we have concluded from the meta-analysis and validation tests that the participants have a good perception of their quality of life, considering health, leisure, environmental quality, functional capacity, level of satisfaction, social support, social networks, and positive social interactions as the determinants of their well-being, although social contact reduces as the age advances. We conclude that multidimensional evaluation is an effective tool to evaluate the quality of life and the objective and subjective health of the elderly. These variables can be related to the improvement of health and well-being.

/pdf/the-impact-of-quality-of-life-on-the-health-of-older-people-2uvawbq4xd.pdf

The Impact of Quality of Life on the Health of Older People from a Multidimensional Perspective

Using SHARE data, this study was based on an earlier analysis that derived social network types among adults aged 65 and over in Europe. The current effort investigated the transitions that occurred across these network types after 4 years (N = 13,767). Four general network transition patterns were identified according to network type (close-family networks and other networks) and whether a network transition occurred. The associations between network type, network transitions and well-being (depression and life satisfaction) were examined. We regressed depressive symptoms and a life satisfaction measure on the network transition patterns, controlling for socio-demographic background, health and country. The results revealed that a majority of older Europeans experienced a range of network transition, while close-family-based networks tended to prevail over time. Moreover, respondents who remained in or transitioned to close-family networks had fewer depressive symptoms and better life satisfaction than those in other network types. The study, thus, underscores the varied effects of network types and network changes on emotional well-being in late life. It also demonstrates that beneficial changes can be made in one’s social network in old age, especially with regard to greater family closeness.

Network type, transition patterns and well-being among older Europeans

Successful aging has been associated with adequate social support. However, impaired functionality, increased dependence, multiple comorbidities, and reduced social interactions place older assisted living community (ALC) residents at risk for poorer social support and less successful aging. This cross-sectional descriptive study used the revised Lubben Social Network Scale and the Successful Aging Inventory to investigate the relationship of social support to successful aging among older ALC residents. The findings indicated that these older adult ALC residents were receiving inadequate social support. Support from friends was more significant than that from family members. A modest correlation between social support and successful aging was observed.

Social Support and Successful Aging in Assisted Living Residents.

Self-help care in older African Americans with arthritis.

https://www.nursing.theclinics.com/article/S0029-6465(07)00043-6/pdf

Arthritis and Sexuality

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Ann Mabe Newman

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Social Support and Successful Aging in Assisted Living Residents.

Self-help care in older African Americans with arthritis.

Arthritis and Sexuality