Many arthritis patients experience physical and psychological impairment. The influence of psychological factors on physical functioning beyond disease & demographic factors had been investigated. Unlike others studied the relationship between just two variables(i. e., depression & helplessness or self-efficacy & depression), the relationships among several variables such as depression, helplessness and self-efficacy were examined altogether.
Forty-two patients were examined to identify the relationship between the variables. It was found that ADL is significantly negatively related to depression and helplessness, and positively related to self-efficacy. And ADL was more strongly correlated with self-efficacy and helplessness than depression, Contrary to ADL, pain was significantly negatively related to self-efficacy, and positively related to depression and helplessness.
Then stepwise regression analysis was performed to identify the variables to predict ADL. It revealed that helplessness was the only significant predictor of ADL. Finally, it is suggested that the inclusion of the method to increase self-efficacy & to decrease helplessness in any nursing intervention is very important.
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