Abstract

• This study was performed to examine the effect of a 7-week comprehensive health promotion program for improving pain, depression, and disability by employing a quasi-experimental design. The subjects were regular out-patients of a RA aclinic in an University Hospital in Inchon from November 11. 1998 to December 24. 1998. The Experimental group included 18 patients who participated in an arthritis health promotion program, and the control group included 18 patients who did not. The 7-week health promotion program, which had the objective to enhance health promoting skills, was provided to patients. The effects of this program on the patients' pain, depression, and functional disability were examined. According to the study results, a significant group difference was found on these dependent variables (Hotelling's T =.30, F=3.11, p=.04). To examine which dependent variables had significant effects, one-way ANOVAs were performed. There were significant group differences in pain (F=4.35, p=.05) and in depression (F=4.22, p=.05) However, no significant group differences on functional disability (F=.04, p=.84) were found. Conclusively, the arthritis health promotion program, which was designed to enhance 11 health promoting skills, can be evaluated as successfully achieving the ultimate goal of enhancing the patients' quality of life. It can also be contended that the improvement of the patients' quality of life was enabled by relieving pain and reducing depression.

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