Patients’ confidence in coping with arthritis after nurse-led education; a qualitative study

BMC Nursing

Table 1 Informant characteristics at baseline

Characteristics	IG (N = 15)	CG (N = 11)
Gender
Females	12	10
Males	3	1
Age
Mean age in yrs. (range)	58 (38–77)	58 (36–77)
Living status
Living alone	1	1
Living with a partner	14	10
Children living at home	3	0
Employment status
Employed	1	4
On disability benefits	11	4
Old-age pensioner	3	3
Diagnosis
RA	9	10
PsA	4	1
UA	2	0
Disease characteristics
Mean DAS28-3	3.2	3.1
Mean disease duration yrs. (range)	9 (1–19)	10 (2–23)
Using DMARDs	11	8
Using NSAIDs	4	2
Coping
SE-other symptoms	66	74
SE-pain	56	66
PAM	73	70

RA Rheumatoid arthritis, PsA Psoriatic arthritis, UA Unspecified polyarthritis, DAS28-3 disease activity score, calculated by C-reactive protein (CRP) and a 28 joint count (number of swollen and tender joints) [32, 33]. DMARD disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs, NSAID non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, SE-other symptoms self-efficacy other symptoms [34, 35], SE-pain self-efficacy pain [34, 35] and PAM patient activation measure [36, 37]

ISSN: 1472-6955