A Survey on Use of Unconventional Treatments and Related Variables of Pain in Patients with Rheumatic Disease

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This study was designed to explore use of unconventional treatments and identify related variables of patients with rheumatic disease. One hundred fifty rheumatic patients were recruited from two university based rheumatic centers according to selection criteria. Collected data were analyzed using SAS program through with a structured questionnaire. T-test, ANOVA, and Scheffe's test were adopted. The results were as follows: 1. 77.7% of the subjects were over forties and mean age was 48.5 years. 74.0% were women and 73.2% were living with their spouse. 82.0% of them was good or moderate or good economic status, 38.3% was university graduates. 2. 58.0% of the subjects had rheumatoid arthritis, and mean duration of suffering rheumatic disease was 6.5 years. 89.3% of them had joint pain and their mean pain score was 4.07. Most painful joints were hip(58.0%), finger(42.0%), wrist(42.0%), and the number of painful joint was 5.4. 70% of the subjects using unconventional treatments, the most common treatments using them was herb medicine(42.7%) and acupuncture(36.7%). 3. Level of pain was different according to subject's age, educational background, diagnosis, number of painful joints, and using unconventional treatments or not. It is recommended that use of a larger sample to understand more about unconventional treatments and pain of patients with rheumatic disease. More research is needed to consider developing individual nursing interventions for their well-being and quality of life.