Living life precariously with rheumatoid arthritis - a mega-ethnography of nine qualitative evidence syntheses.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes joint inflammation. It affects around 400,000 people in the UK and 1 million adults in the USA. Given the appropriate treatment, many can have relatively few symptoms. It is therefore important to understand what it is like to live with rheumatoid arthritis and gain insight into peoples' decisions about utilising healthcare. The aims of this study were: (1) to bring together qualitative evidence syntheses that explore patients' experience of living with rheumatoid arthritis and (2) develop a conceptual understanding of what it is like to live with rheumatoid arthritis.

Methods

We used the methods of mega-ethnography. The innovation of mega-ethnography is to use conceptual findings from qualitative evidence

SUBMITTER: Toye F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6390589 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature