Do people with rheumatoid arthritis develop illness-related schemas?
OBJECTIVE
To assess, using both qualitative/inductive and quantitative data, whether people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have schemas related to arthritis.


METHODS
Themes identified from interview and focus group transcripts were used to develop 1) questionnaire items, and 2) statements participants were asked to recall during home interviews. Two hundred one people with RA completed questionnaires and recall tasks of the type used in cognitive research, followed 10 days later by another recall assessment by telephone.


RESULTS
Qualitative methods, item-level questionnaire data, and category-level recall data yielded convergent results supporting 4 final categories: mastery, support, loss of independence, and depression. Regression analyses indicated that category of earlier recollections predicted subsequent recollections assessed via phone.


CONCLUSIONS
Results from widely different methods offer at least partial support for arthritis schemas and suggest that the concepts identified are meaningful to patients as well as to researchers.
DeVellis
R F
RF
Thurston Arthritis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 27599-7330, USA.
Patterson
C C
CC
Blalock
S J
SJ
Renner
B R
BR
DeVellis
B M
BM
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012803:Sick Role; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires