Living with Rheumatoid arthritis : the patient’s experience

Abstract

This paper aims to explore an in-depth experience of patients who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The study focuses on the lived experience of RA patients and aims to understand how it impacts their lives. A qualitative approach was adopted, namely Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to examine how such individuals make sense of their experience. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand the meaning these people give to it, their coping strategies and illness perceptions and stressors that they confront. The recruited participants were all between the ages of fifty-three and seventy-three. Interviews were analysed by employing Smith’s IPA which allowed for a comprehensive and detailed examination of the participants’ experience. Findings from the interviews suggest that RA is seen as a disruptive experience, which impacts one’s quality of life (QoL) and subsequently, requires a significant degree of adjustment. It causes an upstir of emotions and stressors; however treatment does help to alleviate symptoms. Furthermore, coping strategies seem to vary widely across men and women. These results are in line with previous literature suggesting that RA does disrupt an individual’s lifestyle and it is linked with various struggles and stressors. Consequently, limitations of the study and recommendations for future research and practice are put forward.