Impact of Rheumatoid Arthritis on Society and the Individual Sample Clauses

Impact of Rheumatoid Arthritis on Society and the Individual. The impact of RA on the individual can be obvious in those with observable disability and deformities from longstanding inflammation. However, other forms of disability are less obvious such as the impact of chronic disease on mental health and the often accompanying chronic pain. RA itself is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and is said to reduce life expectancy by up to five years. [Xxxxx et al. 1994] The cost of RA to the individual and society can be thought of in terms of ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ costs. The ‘direct’ costs are fairly easily measurable in terms of costs of hospital appointments with specialists and allied health care professionals, drug treatments, drug monitoring, investigations and hospital admissions. The ‘indirect’ costs are less easily measurable and include less tangible costs such as loss of productivity, loss of work time, incapacity and disability benefits as well as the impact on family with many relatives often acting as unpaid carers. Patients with RA often leave full time employment early in disease and a proportion will never return to full time work. Those who do work often need considerable time off for repeated hospital appointments, monitoring of the possible side effects associated with treatment and sessions with allied health care professionals such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Numerous tools have been designed to measure outcomes in RA patients with regards to disease activity, overall health and disability; however, tools which attach a monetary value have been attempted but have been less successful.