Linköping University Medical Dissertations No. 1063 Aspects of disability in rheumatoid arthritis- a five-year follow-up in the Swedish TIRA project

Abstract

The arthritis project ‘TIRA ’ started in 1996, in a time of new treatment strategies that focused on rapid early interventions in patients with recent onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA). During 27 months, 320 patients were included in the project and followed regularly over eight years. A unique approach in the TIRA project was the regular involvement of a multi-disciplinary team that included occupational therapists, physiotherapists and social workers among others. The patients were assessed for genetic markers, disease markers, co-morbidity, exposure factors and lifestyle, disease activity, disability, quality of life, health economy and demography. I was enrolled in the TIRA project as an occupational therapist at the rheumatology unit in Linköping and I met with these patients in the clinical routine. As an occupational therapist, the consequences of RA have always been my focus, because the disease affects major life areas for the patients. From this point of view, my research has focused on disability in patients with early RA to facilitate their daily life activities, an interest that I maintained as a PhD student in the TIRA project. The TIRA project is neither an incidence study nor an intervention study. The collected data has made descriptive and longitudinal analyses possible. The project has generated