Patterns of positive social engagement among women with rheumatoid arthritis

This article examines the role of positive events in older women's adaptati on to rheumatoid arthritis. In one study, women with rheumatoid arthritis w ere compared with healthy older women. The women with rheumatoid arthritis shelved a less-active pattern of social engagement than the healthy women, and less-stable patterns otter time. In a second study, women with rheumato id arthritis participated in ail intervention designed to enhance active pa tterns of social engagement. The intervention succeeded in increasing posit ive social-engagement patterns. Improvements in quality of life and reducti on in disease activity coincided with these changes. Most improvements in w ell-being did not last, but the women's beliefs in their capacity to cope w ith their illness were enhanced, and those beliefs remained significantly h igher than levels before the intervention.