Perceived importance of activities of daily living and arthritis helplessness in rheumatoid arthritis; a prospective investigation.

OBJECTIVE To examine the contribution of perceived importance of activities of daily living (ADL) to arthritis-specific helplessness in a sample of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients over a 1-year period. METHOD Forty-two individuals from an outpatient rheumatology clinic completed measures of ADL importance, helplessness, depression, pain, and disability; the physician's assistant provided objective ratings of disability. RESULTS Time 1 importance of ADL predicted a significant amount of variance in Time 2 arthritis helplessness after statistically controlling disease and psychological covariates. Moreover, increased perceived ADL importance predicted decreased arthritis helplessness over the 1-year period. CONCLUSIONS Results indicate that RA patients' experience of arthritis-specific helplessness may be minimized over time when performing ADL is perceived as important. Furthermore, these findings provide preliminary evidence for one possible antecedent to increased perceptions of arthritis helplessness in individuals with RA.