Background: For measuring outcomes in team care, different aspects in the ICF (International Classification of Functioning) are relevant. Health-related quality of life as measured by SF-36 includes aspects of body function as well as activity and participation. HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) reflects more personal factors. Individuals with rheumatic diseases experience lower degree of health-related quality of life, compared with the general population.

Objectives: To examine health-related quality of life as well as anxiety and depression in patients with rheumatic diseases directly after and three and six months after a period of three weeks in patient team based multiprofessional rehabilitation at a unit specialised for patients with different rheumatic diseases.

Method: Quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-test in consecutive adult patients (Rheumatoid arthritis n=23, Spondylarthritides n=14, Osteoarthritis n=6, Other inflammatory rheumatic diseases n=10), one week before(n=55), one week after(n=53), three (n=40) and six months (n=36) after a period of three weeks of in patient team based multiprofessional care at a unit for rheumatic diseases. The instruments used for outcome measurements were the Short Form 36 Health questionnaire (SF-36) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Statistical analysis was done with the SPSS package 13.0. Differences between groups were evaluated with Wilcoxon signed rank test.

Results: The patients reported worse outcome on the eight health scales in SF-36, at baseline and one week, three and six months after the rehabilitation, when comparing with the norm for the Swedish population. The mean values for SF-36 improved in all eight subscales one week after the rehabilitation period and six of the health scales obtained statistically significant improvement (p<0.05). Three and six months later there was still a statistically (p<0.05 for 3/8 subscales; Role Physical (RP), Vitality(VT) and Mental Health(MH)) and/or clinically significant (5/8 subscales; Physical function(PF), Bodily Pain(BP), General Health(GH), Social Fundtioning(SF) and Role Emotional(RE)) improvement as compared to the levels before the rehabilitation period. The levels for anxiety and depression as measured by HADS improved significantly (p<0.05) one week after the rehabilitation period as compared to baseline. Three and six months after the rehabilitation period, the levels were the same as at baseline.

Conclusion: Earlier studies and this study have shown that people with rheumatic diseases experience reduced health-related quality of life and increased anxiety and depression. The result from this study showed that after a period of three weeks in patient team based multiprofessional rehabilitation, the experience of health-related quality of life was improved also after three and six months whereas the improvement in anxiety and depression returned to baseline after three and six months. Thus, improvements in health-related quality of life seem to reflect other aspects of the disease consquences than anxiety and depression.