Predictors of severe self-reported disability in RA in a long-term follow-up study

Abstract

Health care providers should be aware of the subgroup of patients with more severe symptoms of pain and impaired function at disease onset since they have an increased risk of being in the most disabled tertile of rheumatoid arthritis patients several years later. Health care providers should assess pain and function and act on high pain and impaired function already at disease onset as they proved to be predictors of patient-reported outcomes controlled for inflammatory parameters. These findings support European guidelines and research findings that patients with high pain and impaired function despite of well-managed inflammatory parameters should early in the disease course be referred to multidisciplinary treatment for supplementary regime.