Published In
Frontiers in Medicine
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-5-2024
Subjects
Rheumatoid arthritis -- case studies, Rheumatoid arthritis -- Alternative treatment
Abstract
Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease and may worsen over time. Today, nurse-led case management (NLCM) has been recommended to improve clinical outcomes for chronic disease patients, yet little is known regarding its impact on pain, fatigue, and C-reactive protein (CRP) among RA patients. We aimed to explore this issue among such groups via a two-group pre- and post-test approach.
Methods: All subjects were recruited from one hospital in Taiwan from January 2017 to June 2018 and assigned to either a 6-month NLCM program in addition to usual care or to a control group that received usual care only. All of them were followed for 2 years. Outcomes of interests were compared at four time points: baseline, the third day after NLCM completion, and at 6 and 24 months after NLCM. Effects between them were tested using the generalized estimating equations (GEE) model after adjusting for differences at baseline.ResultsA total of 50 patients in the NLCM group and 46 in the control group were recruited for data analysis. Results from the GEE model indicated that integrating NLCM into conventional care benefited patients in decreasing levels of pain and fatigue, as well as CRP value. These improvements were still observed for 2 years after NLCM.ConclusionNLCM was shown to be helpful in lowering pain, fatigue, and CRP, which implies that NLCM may be a reference in the provision of tailored care for those affected by rheumatism.
Rights
Copyright © 2024 Chang, Livneh, Huang, Li, Lu, Lin, Chen and Tsai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.3389/fmed.2024.1373639
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42027
Citation Details
Chang, W.-C., Livneh, H., Huang, H.-L., Li, H.-H., Lu, M.-C., Lin, M.-C., Chen, W.-J., & Tsai, T.-Y. (2024). Does the nurse-led case management benefit rheumatoid arthritis patients in reducing distressing symptoms and C-reactive protein: a 2-year follow-up study in Taiwan. Frontiers in Medicine, 11.