Ryūmachi. [Rheumatism]
-
Ryūmachi. [Rheumatism] · Feb 2002
Multicenter Study[A multicenter cross-sectional study on the health related quality of life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis using a revised Japanese version of the arthritis impact measurement scales version 2 (AIMS 2), focusing on the medical care costs and their associative factors].
To survey the actual conditions of medical care costs incurred by Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and to investigate impacts of health status, demographic and socioeconomic factors, clinical and laboratory measures, and medications on disease costs. ⋯ The costs of RA were strongly related to work disability and other health status as represented by AIMS-HRQOL scores. A small number of patents severely disabled shared a disproportionately large part of medical care costs. To reduce the costs, the measures to prevent the development of disability are most important.