Rehabilitation Research and Practice about their belief systems that diﬀer from other population groups with pain. The inﬂuence of psychological feelings on the experience of pain in rheumatologic conditions should be explored as well. 5. Conclusion This study conﬁrmed a relationship between organic beliefs about pain and functioning for participants in the ANZ exercise classes and education programmes. The sample had a mean age of 65 years (SD 11.7 years); ﬁfty-one per cent of participants had experienced more than 8 years of pain, and 61% had joined ANZ in the last three years. Organic pain beliefs (beliefs that the pain experience indicates harm or threat to well being) are signiﬁcantly associated with poor- er functioning. This was conﬁrmed by linear regression with an r-value of 0.32 (where α was 0.05 and 1-β was 0.8). Psy- chological pain beliefs (beliefs about the internal inﬂuenc- es and feelings aﬀecting the experience of pain) are not asso- ciated with functioning. 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