Self -management, physical disability and emotions in rheumatoid arthritis

Objectives. The objectives of this project were to: (1) explore the relations between physical disability and self-management behaviors among people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to explore whether age moderated these relationships, and (2) develop a measure to assess an array of arthritis-related emotions and examine the measure's psychometric properties.;Methods. Study ;Results. After adjusting for covariates, physical disability was associated with use of adaptive equipment [F (14,448) = 18.43, p < .001], environmental change activities [F (14,448) = 58.16, p < .001] and topical treatments [F (14,448) = 4.21, p < .05]. Gender qualified the relations between disability and activity modification and disability and herb and supplements. When burdoned by high levels of disability, men and women used activity modification and herb and supplements similarily. However, with lower levels of disability, women were more likely to use these strategies. Age qualified the relations between disability and stress management, although the statistical significance was marginal. Five factors were identified in the Emotions in Arthritis Scale: fear/anxiety, general positive emotions, negative interpersonal emotions, fatigue/frustration and anger. Cronbach's alphas ranged from .79 to .91.;Conclusion. Disability was related to self-management behaviors among people with RA, with gender moderating this relationship at least for some domains. The new measure on emotions had excellent internal consistency; however, more research is needed to explore the measure's psychometric properties, establish validity, and explore the relations among physical disability, emotions and RA self-management.