Abstract

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic progressive autoimmune disease associated with a decline in functional status. Previous studies have shown that RA patients have high rates of early retirement and work absenteeism and are more likely to be unemployed or with reduced earning potential.

Objective: Characterize work disability and identify factors associated with work incapacity in rheumatoid arthritis patients from a Rheumatology clinic.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 116 patients with RA. Sociodemographic, clinical and occupational variables were collected and the validated Portuguese version of the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire-General Health (WPAI-GH) was applied to all patients currently employed. The following parameters were obtained: absenteeism, presenteeism, overall work impairment and global activity impairment. Results: Correlation coefficients between DAS28 and WPAI-GH scores were moderate-good. A high correlation coefficient was obtained between HAQ and global activity impairment (0.647).

Conclusions: These findings support the usability of this version of WPAI-GH in a rheumatoid arthritis population and the value of associating specific work incapacity tools to clinical and functional assessment. There is a need for introduction of workplace productivity assessment in routine evaluation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Keywords: Work productivity; Work disability; Absenteeism; Rheumatoid arthritis