Physiotherapeutic intervention in pain and quality of life of women with rheumatoid arthritis. Case reports

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune, chronic, idiopathic and inflammatory disease that symmetrically affects the tissues, organs and peripheral joints causing pain, swelling, stiffness and decreased the quality of life. The objective of this study was to confirm the effects of a physiotherapeutic intervention program on pain and quality of life of women with rheumatoid arthritis. CASE REPORTS: Study of a series of cases of five female patients, with average age ± 54 years. The initial assessment consisted of data collection, pain assessment by visual analog scale and evaluation of the quality of life by the Medical Outcomes Study36 Item Short-Form Health Survey SF-36. After the initial assessment, patients were subjected to a physiotherapeutic intervention program based on kinesiotherapy, which was conducted in groups, consisting of two sessions per week and duration of 50 minutes per session, totaling 10 sessions. The pain showed no statistically significant results when analyzed by the visual analog scale. However, when assessing the quality of life related to pain and vitality, there were statistically significant results (p≤0.05) in post-intervention. CONCLUSION: The proposed intervention program has been effective in improving the pain and vitality domains regarding the analysis of the quality of life in women with rheumatoid arthritis.