title: [An estimate of functional state in patients with rheumatoid arthritis].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory chronic disease that affects 0.5-1% of the population, many of whom develop disease as working-age adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  The aim of examination was to estimate functional disability in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and relationship between radiological damage, disease duration, disease activity, functional disability. The examination involved 60 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, aged (53.92 +/- 7.06) of both genders (48 female, 12 male). The following variables were assessed at one time point: swollen and tender joint count, visual analogue scale for pain, erythrocite sedimentation rate, health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) score, anatomical stage and functional class according to Stenbrocker's criteria. Disease activity was expressed as 28 joint disease activity score (DAS28). Correlations were calculated by Spearman's coefficient of correlation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In our study 82% of the patients had II and III anatomical stage and 80% of the patients had II and III functional class according to Steinbrocker's criteria. The median HAQ score was 1.25 +/- 0.70, and the median DAS28 was 5.74 +/- 0.98. Poor functional status was observed in 37 (61.66%) of the patients with an HAQ score of = 2. Functional disability in patients with rheumatoid arthritis was most strongly related to the presence of pain (rs=0.338, p<0.01) and to a lesser extent to anatomical and functional stage, disease duration, disease activity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the study show that functional disability significantly correlated with subjective pain score (rs=0.338, p<0.01). We observed strong correlation between functional disability presented by HAQ score and pain but no significant correlation with other common clinical variables used for rheumatoid arthritis patients evaluation such as disease duration, disease activity, radiological damage.
authors: Klinicki centar Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Klinika za medicinsku rehabilitaciju. drtomasevic@gmail.com
authors: Snezana
authors: S
authors: Tomasević-Todorović
authors: Slobodan
authors: S
authors: Branković
authors: Ksenija
authors: K
authors: Bosković
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged