LEADER

Rheumatoid arthritis

Understanding disability

G Stucki

University Hospital Munich, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Munich, Germany

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor G Stucki, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Marchioninistr 15, 81377 Munich, Germany;
gerold.stucki@phys.med.uni-muenchen.de

---

Control of disease activity has the greatest effect on physical functional disability so should we bother with multidisciplinary rehabilitation care programmes?

---

Keywords: economic analysis; rheumatoid arthritis; clinical nurse specialist; multidisciplinary team care

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

For many years the researchers of the department of rheumatology at the University of Leiden have contributed to our understanding of the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of specific rehabilitation interventions^1,2 and the provision of comprehensive care for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.^3,4,4a The most recent study by van den Hout et al, published in this issue of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases,⁵ found that compared with inpatient and day patient team care, clinical nurse specialist care provides equivalent quality of life and utility, at lower costs. This result challenges the current but largely unproven assumption that multidisciplinary team care is both necessary and superior. The objective of this editorial is to discuss some conceptual and methodological issues relevant to the interpretation of this result and to draw some conclusions for the design of future studies examining the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of multidisciplinary care.

Which mediators . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Adams, J., Burridge, J., Mullee, M., Hammond, A., Cooper, C. (2008). The clinical effectiveness of static resting splints in early rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized controlled trial. Rheumatology (Oxford) 47: 1548-1553 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Verhoef, J., Toussaint, P.J., Putter, H., Zwetsloot-Schonk, J.H.M., Vliet Vlieland, T.P.M. (2008). The impact of introducing an ICF-based rehabilitation tool on staff satisfaction with multidisciplinary team care in rheumatology: an exploratory study. Clin Rehabil 22: 23-37 [Abstract]  
• Vliet Vlieland, T. P. M. (2007). Non-drug care for RA is the era of evidence-based practice approaching?. Rheumatology (Oxford) 46: 1397-1404 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Stucki, G, Ewert, T (2005). How to assess the impact of arthritis on the individual patient: the WHO ICF. Ann Rheum Dis 64: 664-668 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Ahlmen, M., Nordenskiold, U., Archenholtz, B., Thyberg, I., Ronnqvist, R., Linden, L., Andersson, A.-K., Mannerkorpi, K. (2005). Rheumatology outcomes: the patient's perspective. A multicentre focus group interview study of Swedish rheumatoid arthritis patients. Rheumatology (Oxford) 44: 105-110 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hammond, A, Young, A, Kidao, R (2004). A randomised controlled trial of occupational therapy for people with early rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis 63: 23-30 [Abstract] [Full Text]