Leisure Activities in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Change after Disease Onset and Associated Factors

The objective of this investigation was to examine the relationship between leisure-time occupations, quality of life and disease activity among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Fifty patients with rheumatoid arthritis ± 39 females and 11 males, aged 30–45 years and belonging to functional class I-III according to Steinbrocker et al (1949) ± were recruited from the register at a hospital clinic and from a private outpatient clinic. The participants completed a questionnaire concerning education, occupation, pain, morning stiffness, current leisure activities and those pursued before the onset of the disease, and including the Quality of Life Scale (QoLS).

The patients had given up two-thirds of their leisure activities since the onset of the disease. This decrease was observed for both sexes. It correlated positively with present disease activity, measured as pain on a visual analogue scale and as morning stiffness, and negatively with the present QoLS. Longitudinal studies are needed to disentangle further the causes and consequences of loss of leisure activities in rheumatoid arthritis patients.