부선주1, 최보민2

1 아주대학교 간호대학·간호과학연구소, 2아주대학교 간호대학

Background: Despite the fact that disease activity, including
blood inflammation level, has been lowered with
the recent improvement in rheumatoid arthritis treatment, the
number of patients appealing of symptoms, such
as fatigue, is maintained at a certain level. Fatigue is the
most common subjective symptom of patients with
rheumatoid arthritis and a major factor influencing health
behavior and quality of life. Therefore, this study
aimed to identify the factors affecting fatigue to prepare basic
data for the development of interventions to im-
prove the quality of life of participants with rheumatoid
arthritis.
Methods: Cross-sectional data collected using structured
questionnaires and medical record reviews were an-
alyzed for 246 rheumatoid arthritis outpatients from a
university-affiliated hospital.
Results: Level of fatigue was an average of 4.4 out of 10,
and 56.5% was evaluated as a remission level based
on the disease activity score 28 (DAS28). Factors
significantly affecting fatigue were pain and learned
helplessness. Higher levels of pain and learned
helplessness were associated with higher levels of fatigue.
Conversely, there was no statistically significant difference
in the fatigue levels of the participants according to
the DAS28, objective disease activity index.
Conclusions: To reduce the fatigue levels of the participants
with rheumatoid arthritis, learned helplessness, in-
cluding pain control, should be lowered. The participant’s
attitude towards the disease should be evaluated and
the participants should be actively supported to obtain hope
for remission, if clinically encountered with
participants.
Korean J Health Promot 2022;22(4):222-228
Keywords: Arthritis, rheumatoid, Fatigue, Helplessness,
learned, Pain