The power of positivity when dealing with arthritis

A take-charge attitude is the key ingredient for overcoming arthritis. When patients with chronic health problems like hypertension and diabetes  were coached on how to become more assertive with their doctors, they reported better overall health and fewer limitations.

In follow-up studies involving people enrolled in arthritis self-management courses, researchers found that the positive attitude gained by participants is crucial for reducing pain and disability. The studies also produced a number of other intriguing results, including:

1. Twenty months after completing the course, participants on average had reduced their pain by 20 per cent, their depression by 14 per cent and visits to physicians by 35 per cent compared with their situation before enrolling.
2. The beneficial effects from participating in the course lasted. Four years after taking the course, patients noted that pain levels were 19 per cent lower and doctor visits had been reduced by 43 per cent than before enrolling in the course.
3. Those who fail to benefit from arthritis self-management courses tend to be fatalistic people who believe that nothing can be done about their arthritis.

• Studies have show that when people adopt a take-charge attitude toward their arthritis, this itself can do wonders for their pain and disability.
• Numerous studies have evaluated the success of self-management courses in improving the health of arthritis patients.
• In doing their follow-up studies, researchers had expected that the behaviours taught in the course — exercising more and eating healthier, for example — would have the biggest impact on improving participants' health.
• But the experts made a surprising finding.
• Participants had indeed changed their behaviour for the better after taking the course and they experienced significantly less pain and disability compared with patients who hadn't enrolled.
• But their improved health did not flow primarily from the behaviour changes they'd made.
• Instead, the researchers found, participants' success in regaining their health hinged mainly on something else they got from the course: the confidence that they were able to control their arthritis symptoms.