Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in the level of disease condition and ADL by self-efficacy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The subjects of the study consisted of eighty-four outpatients with rheumatoid arthritis at a university hospital in Taegu between July 20, 1999 and August 25, 1999. The instruments used in this study were the self-efficacy developed by Lorig et al. (1989), the pain scale developed by Lee and Song(1987), the erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR), the pain joint count to measure disease condition scale, and the ADL scale developed by Katz et al. (1970) and Barthel(1973). Analysis of data was done by use of descriptive statistics: Pearson Correlation, Chi-square test, t-test, ANOVA and Scheffe, with the SPSS program. The major findings can be summarized as follows: 1. The first hypothesis, "There will be differences in the level of disease condition by self-efficacy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis" was partially supported. 1-1. "There will be differences in the level of pain by self-efficacy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis" was supported(F=3.422, p=.037). 1-2. "There will be differences in the level of ESR by self-efficacy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis" was the Disease Condition and supported (F=3.314, p=.041). 1-3. "There will be differences in the level of pain joints count by self-efficacy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis" was rejected(F=2.602, p=.080). 2. The second hypothesis, "There will be differences in the level of ADL by self-efficacy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis" was supported(F=7.067, p=.001). With the above results, it can be concluded that the higher level of self-efficacy contributed to the better level of disease condition and ADL in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, by providing nursing intervention to promote the level of self-efficacy of rheumatoid arthritis patients with low self-efficacy, disease condition and ADL would be much better.

• Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis; Self-efficacy; Disease condition; Activities of daily living