Self-management programme for rheumatoid arthritis in Hong Kong

Patient education can help patients to make decisions about adjustments in their treatment regimen and to adopt ‘selfmanagement’ behaviours. In Hong Kong, a rheumatoid arthritis selfhelp course was developed by Community Rehabilitation Network, a community based rehabilitation service, based on different community-based rehabilitation approaches and the Arthritis Self-Management Programme of the Standford Arthritis Centre. During the past 3 years, a total of 11 classes were conducted involving more than 140 rheumatoid arthritis patients. The course resulted in improvement of the participants' understanding of RA and the acquisition of arthritis-related knowledge and self-management skills. Post-programme focus groups further revealed and attributed these changes to different interventions and thus contributed to ihe future modification and improvement of the programme.