Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) Musculoskeletal Diseases Rheumatoid arthritis, unspecified
Conditions
Interventions
The intervention included five groups. Four experimental groups who had access to the website and a control group that did not.
The experimental groups combined access vs. no access to
Sponsors
Swiss National Science Foundation (Switzerland)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. To have received a diagnosis for RA from a doctor 2. To have cognitive function sufficient to use the website effectively 3. Not to suffer from any other major chronic illness (e.g., cancer, diabetes) 4. To have Internet access 5. Willingness to use the website for at least 1 hour per week 6. To be fluent in Italian
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Not satisfying the inclusion criteria
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| The same measures were used and responses were collected at baseline, posttest (2 months) and follow-up (4 months) 1. Physical activity: 6 items based on the Exercise Behaviours Scale (Lorig et al., 1996). The items measured the time spent on physical activity in the last week on a scale from 0 = never to 5 = more than 3 hours per week. The scoring of each item as reported by the original scale, estimated the number of minutes spent on exercise from 0 to 180 minutes. 2. Health care utilization: 5 items based on Healthcare Utilization Scale (Ritter, 2001). They were used to measure the self-reported outpatient visits to physicians, emergency room visits, nights in the hospital, chiropractic visits, and physical therapy visits. 3. Prescription medication overuse: 6 items based on the Addiction Severity Index. Each item was a Yes/No question. Items were scored yes = 1, no = 0. The higher the sum score, the more medication overuse is indicated. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| The same measures were used and responses were collected at baseline, posttest (2 months) and follow-up (4 months) 1. Rheumatoid Arthritis Knowledge: 15 multiple-choice questions based on the Patient Knowledge Questionnaire in RA (Hill J, Bird HA, Hopkins R, et al., 1991) 2. Empowerment: 12 items adapted for RA, based on the empowerment scale proposed by (Spreitzer, 1995). It includes four sub-dimensions: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. Each item in the scale is measured on a 7-point Likert scale from 1 = very strongly disagree to 7 = very strongly agree. | — |
Countries
Switzerland
Outcome results
None listed