Patient Goals for Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Qualitative Study

Melanie J. Cozad, Lisa C. Lindley, Kaitlyn Crosby, Noor Alshareef, Ann Blair Kennedy, Gulzar Merchant, Pam Evans and Ronnie D. Horner

Clinical Nursing Research, 2023, vol. 32, issue 1, 40-48

Abstract: Rheumatoid arthritis is highly individualized in terms of its flare ups and periods of remission. Each patient’s unique experience requires a high level of personalization in terms of treatment making it necessary to understand what their goals for living are. This study explores patient perceptions on how the burden of RA shapes patients’ goals for living and their preferences for symptom and side-effect management within the United States. Fifteen patients diagnosed with RA with varying lengths of diagnosis were interviewed. A thematic analysis was conducted to construct a conceptual framework. Emerging themes identified disease burdens as: (1) inability to perform essential needs, (2) negative feelings about disease, and (3) its influence on relationships. These burdens shaped desired goals for living which guided the symptom and side-effect priorities the patient wanted managed. Practitioners should consider patient goals and preferences in conjunction with disease progression when engaging in treatment decisions.

Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis; clinical management; patient-reported goals; symptom and side-effect preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10547738221075784 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:clnure:v:32:y:2023:i:1:p:40-48

DOI: 10.1177/10547738221075784

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Clinical Nursing Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().