Effect of Stress Management on Quality of Life in Females with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic and immunologic disorder, which is characterized with feet, wrist and knee inflammatory destruction and morning stiffness. It mainly results in joint deformity and reduced ability, which can propagate into low quality of life (QOL). Recently, QOL has been demonstrated as one of the most important factors in male’s life and studies have showed the negative effect of physical and emotional stress on QOL. Objectives: This study aimed at evaluating the effect of stress management on QOL in females with RA referring to Baqiyatallah hospital during years 2012 to 2013. Methods: Fifty female patients with RA that had referred to Baqiyatallah hospital between March 2012 and March 2013 were evaluated in 2 equal groups, matched by age. The patients were enrolled conveniently. The intervention group members were trained with a 10-session stress management program and the control group did not undergo any intervention. The world health organization quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire was filled-out by both groups ( = 0.641) and the results were compared by suitable statistical tests. Results: Significant difference was observed in QOL between the intervention and control groups (effect size of 2 = 0.845). No significant difference was seen in mean QOL results in early post-test and late follow-up test; however, a significant difference was seen between post-test and pre-test in the intervention groups (P < 0.05). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that stress management could benefit QOL in RA patients. The results suggest that the stress management package can be beneficial in these patients along with other medications.