Perceived importance of activities of daily living and arthritis helplessness in rheumatoid arthritis; a prospective investigation.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the contribution of perceived importance of activities of daily living (ADL) to arthritis-specific helplessness in a sample of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients over a 1-year period.


METHODS
Forty-two individuals from an outpatient rheumatology clinic completed measures of ADL importance, helplessness, depression, pain, and disability; the physician's assistant provided objective ratings of disability.


RESULTS
Time 1 importance of ADL predicted a significant amount of variance in Time 2 arthritis helplessness after statistically controlling disease and psychological covariates. Moreover, increased perceived ADL importance predicted decreased arthritis helplessness over the 1-year period.


CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate that RA patients' experience of arthritis-specific helplessness may be minimized over time when performing ADL is perceived as important. Furthermore, these findings provide preliminary evidence for one possible antecedent to increased perceptions of arthritis helplessness in individuals with RA.
Division of Psychology MLC 3015, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA. kevin.hommel@cchmc.org
Kevin A
KA
Hommel
Janelle L
JL
Wagner
John M
JM
Chaney
Molly M
MM
White
Larry L
LL
Mullins
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires