Views on exercise maintenance: variations among patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Background and Purpose. Individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) often have to make changes in exercise behavior in order to gain and sustain health benefits. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe ways of understand-ing exercise maintenance among individuals with RA who had already started to exercise. Participants. Fourteen women and 4 men with RA of at least 2 years ’ duration, selected from 4 hospitals or primary health care physical therapy clinics, participated. They had exercised regularly at least twice weekly during the previous 2 months with various levels of support from a physical therapist, and they had attempted to exercise without support outside of the health care environment during the previous year. Method. A phenomenographic approach was used to analyze semistructured interviews. A pattern of categories of descriptions was constructed based on the participants ’ conceptions and ways of understanding the phenomenon of exercise maintenance