Efficacy of educational programm for patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Objective. To estimate influence of educational programm on the level of knowledge of patients with RA about the disease, readiness for compliance, quality of life, efficiency of therapy and attitude to the disease. Methods. 103 women with RA were included in the study. They were divided into four groups: a control group, "passive" school and "active" school groups and a group with individual training (33, 21, 29 and 20 pts respectively). At the discharge from hospital and 12 months later medical estimation of patient knowledge and 10 test tasks were performed including "Index of biotic satisfaction" (N.Panin), quality of life estimation on visual analogous scale, a self-rating "of health and happiness" (Dembo- Rubinstein), "Level of social frustration" and "type of attitude to illness" (SPb Bechterev’s institute), readiness for complianse (original questionnaire). Results. At the time of discharge and in after 12 months test tasks and medical estimation of pts knowledge indices in "active" school and individual training groups were significantly higher, than in of control group and group of "passive" school (p < 0,001). The collective medical assessment demonstrated a correlation between treatment efficacy and the method of information transfer (p=0.29: p < 0,05). The quality of life correlates with the method of training according to all assessment techniques. Estimation of training method influencing on compliance provided similar results (p: = 0.45; p < 0,05). In groups of "active" school and individual training the number of pts who strictly followed the regimens of physical rehabilitation increased. Conclusion. Our data confirm the necessity of purposeful and systematic educational training in RA. The active methods and individual training promote the achievement of best results

Keywords

• rheumatoid arthritis
• patient education