Stressful life events and disability in early rheumatoid arthritis

The objective was to investigate the relationship of stressfullife events and disability in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA),taking into account a possible stress-buffering effect of thesocial network. As part of a European study (EURIDISS), 337early RA patients in France and The Netherlands (mean diseaseduration = 2.3 years) were interviewed for life events whichhad occurred in the past year. The social network compositionwas assessed using a standardized interview schedule and describedby network density and proximity characteristics. Disabilitywas assessed with the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ)cross-culturally adapted to the French and Dutch languages.Subjects reported a median of 2 significant life events overthe past year. On average they had 20 persons in their socialnetwork. The disability was significantly higher when the numberof life events experienced was higher (r = 0.11; p<0.05)and when the number of social network members in monthly contactwith the subjects was lower (r = –0.13; p<0.05). Controllingfor country, the HAQ score increased significantly with thedisease duration, disease activity variables, number of lifeevents related to RA or to another health problem and decreasedwith the number of social network members. A significant (numberof health-related life events)x(number of social network members)cross-product term entered the model which fitted the data better(R² =0.51). Factors associated with disability are disease duration,disease activity, number of health-related life events and numberof social network members in monthly contact. The results suggesta stress-buffering effect of the social network in coping withstressful life events in early RA.