Group Education for Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis must learn to adjust their exercise, rest and medication to the varying activity of the disease. Patient education can help patients in making the right decisions about adjustments in their treatment regimen and in at-taining rSelf-management ” behaviors. We developed a group education program based on so-cial learning theory and the ‘Arthritis Self-Management Course ’ developed in the USA by Lorig. Goal of the program is the strengthening of self-efficacy, outcome expectations and self-management behaviors of RA patients which may lead to better health status. The program has been evaluated in an experimental design. We established significant positive effects of the group training on functional disability, joint tenderness, practice of re-laxation and physical exercises, self-management behavior, outcome expectations, self-efficacy func-tion and knowledge. After 14 months we still found effects on practice of physical exercises, self-efficacy function and knowledge