Effect of Stress Inoculation Training on Quality of Life of Patients with Rheumatoidarthritis: A Clinical Trial

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease that reduces the quality of life in patients. Stress is one of the important factors involved in the onset of the disease. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of stress inoculation training on the quality of life of patients with RA.

This randomized clinical trial had a control group and was performed on all patients with RA, referred to the specialized RA center in 2016. In total, 30 paents were selected by random sampling and were divided into two intervention and control groups using a random allocation method. In addition, the data collection tool was the SF-36 quesonnaire. The subjects in the intervenon group aended 10 stress inoculation training sessions, whereas the participants in the control group received no interventions. In the end, the two groups filled the SF-36 tool as a posest. Moreover, data analysis was performed using independent t-test and covariance.

In this study, the mean score of life quality significantly increased in the intervention group after the intervention. Therefore, the quality of life score increased after the intervention, which showed the impact of the intervenon on the decrease of stress (P<0.001) and an increase in the quality of life and its components (P<0.001).

According to the results of the study, stress inoculation training was introduced as an effective approach to increase the quality of life of patients with RA.