Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease present among close to 0.3 – 1.5% of the population, mainly women. The disease usually starts in the hand joints, which are gradually deformed, quickly impairing the normal functioning of the patients. The pain, loss of the smooth movements and the deformation of hands influence the impairment of everyday activities and decrease the quality of the patients’ lives.
The goal of this work is the assessment of the effectiveness of manual therapy in alleviating the symptoms of the developing RA in the area of the hand joints, especially verifying whether the manual therapy decreases the experienced pain, improves the manual dexterity, as well as verifying how the therapy influences the everyday activities and the quality of life of the examined patients in the emotional as well as in the social and professional aspects.
There were 25 women with diagnosed RA taking part in the study, which underwent a 2-week manual therapy. The effectiveness of the therapy was assessed with help of hand movement tests and questionnaires, including the modified Laitinen’s scale and the FRI test. The results showed, that the use of the manual therapy significantly improved the quality of the examined women’s lives. Manual therapy may be an effective therapeutic method for RA patients.