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Stories for Reprint
Arthritis Education by Mail
By Erin Willis, MARRTC Staff
Stanford University recently studied a new at-home option for an arthritis self-management program that's been shown to work.
Usually conducted in workshop settings, arthritis self-management programs help people understand the disease, cope with chronic pain, and encourage people to take an active role in managing their arthritis.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were looking for a fairly low cost intervention that could reach a large number of people and could be administered easily," says Kate Lorig, a registered nurse and director of patient education research at Stanford University.
Researchers from Stanford University mailed Arthritis Self-Management Tool Kits to more than 900 participants' homes. The Tool Kits contained four audio CDs with exercise and relaxation tips, The Arthritis Help Book, tip sheets with information on how to better manage arthritis, and a self-test to help participants personalize the Tool Kit.
After using the Tool Kit for four months, participants saw improvements in pain, fatigue, depression, and how they felt about themselves.
Much like arthritis self-management workshops, this mail-based version was successful in improving the coping skills of people with arthritis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arthritis self-management programs can help people with arthritis decrease their pain by 20 percent and reduce doctor visits by almost half. Unfortunately, less than 11 percent of people with arthritis have ever used an arthritis self-management program.
Lorig points out why so few take advantage of these programs, "We make it hard for people to participate in self-management programs," says Lorig. "We schedule things at times and places that are not convenient. People are busy and have other things going on in their lives."
Learning to better manage arthritis in the comfort and convenience of home may allow the program to reach a different and larger group of people who were unable or not interested in attending a workshop.
"This intervention mode is not available to the public yet," says Lorig. "But, we know this mode works and that participants saw improvement in their conditions."
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