Health Education and Health Promotion

Aims: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by progressive articular damage of the joints with extra-articular manifestations. RA has a significant impact on the impairment of patients' quality of life and loss of physical function and is a leading cause of dependency and disability. The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the Self-Management Educational program on Health-Related Quality of Life (HQoL) and Activities of Daily Living (ADL) in RA patients.
Materials & Methods: This quasi-experimental study was carried out on 145 patients with RA from 10^th March 2019 to 4^th February 2020 at Rheumatology and Physical Rehabilitation Center. Participants were selected by simple random sampling and randomly divided into experimental (n=85) and control (n=60) groups. The study tools included the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), Barthel Index (BI), and World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF). Patients in the experimental group participated in a four-session self-management training program, while patients in the control group received only routine care. Data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 software using Fisher's Exact test, Chi-square test, and Paired t-test.
Findings: There was a significant improvement in the quality of life domains, ability to perform activities of daily living, and functional status after the educational program (p<0.01). Also, the proportion of totally independent increased from 35.3% to 54.1% (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Self-management educational programs can be considered an effective intervention to improve the quality of life, perform activities of daily living and minimize functional disability in RA patients.