Evaluate the Effectiveness of Health Care Package on Self-Care Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Terms of Knowledge and Quality of Life in Patients with Early Stage Rheumatoid Arthritis
Authors: Khan Farrha , Mathur R.G. , Dey Madhumita 
Published: January 2024

Topic: A study to evaluate the effectiveness of health care package on self-care management of rheumatoid arthritis in terms of knowledge and quality of life in patients with early stage rheumatoid arthritis in selected hospital of Delhi.
Objectives: Develop the health care package on self-care management of rheumatoid arthritis. Assess the knowledge of patients on self-care management of rheumatoid arthritis before and after administration of health care package. Assess the level of quality of life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis before and after administration of health care package. Determine the relationship between the knowledge and the quality of life of patients after administration of health care package. Determine the association between post-test knowledge on self-care management of rheumatoid arthritis and selected variables: - Age, Gender, Occupation, Monthly family income, Education, Family history of rheumatoid arthritis, Alcohol consumption habits, Smoking habits, BMI. Determine the association between and post-test of quality of life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and selected variables: - Age, Gender, Occupation, Monthly family income, Education, Family history of rheumatoid arthritis, Alcohol consumption habits, Smoking habits, BMI. Determine the acceptability and utility of Health care package in terms of opinion of rheumatoid arthritis patients.
Methodology: Experimental research approach with pre- test post-test control group design was adopted. The population comprised of 60 early-stage rheumatoid arthritis patients selected through purposive sampling method and randomly allocated in the control and experimental group by lottery method from PGIMR, Dr. RML Hospital, New Delhi. The independent variable was health care package and dependent variable were knowledge regarding self-care management and quality of life of early-stage rheumatoid arthritis patients. The tools used were structured knowledge questionnaire, structured quality of life rating scale and structured opinionnaire. The KR-20, inter-observer and cronbach alpha formula was used to assess the reliability of tools.
Results: Early-stage rheumatoid arthritis patients had poor knowledge regarding self-care management leads to poor quality of life. The health care package found to be effective in improving the knowledge of early-stage rheumatoid arthritis patients regarding self-care management and help them towards a better quality of life. There was no significant association between the knowledge and quality of life with the selected variables i.e. age, gender, occupation, monthly family income, education, family history of rheumatoid arthritis, alcohol consumption habits, smoking habits and BMI in early-stage rheumatoid arthritis patients.
Conclusion: The present study identified deficit in knowledge and poor quality of life in early-stage rheumatoid arthritis patients. The health care package was helpful to increase knowledge regarding self-care management and improves quality of life of early-stage rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Key words: Health care package, self-care management, knowledge, quality of life, Early-stage rheumatoid arthritis patients.