Balneotherapy and health-related quality of life in individuals with Rheumatoid arthritis: An observational study under real clinical practice conditions

Abstract: Introduction: To analyze the influence of balneotherapy applied under real clini-cal practice conditions on the quality of life and functionality of patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Methods: Prospective, observational study conducted with a group of patients under real clinical practice conditions, with a 6-month follow-up. The partici-pants were beneficiaries of the social thermalism programme of the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Well-being, aged 60-80 years and diagnosed with rheu-matoid arthritis, who were treated at Fitero’s Spa (Spain). The study excluded those indi-viduals who had undergone another balneotherapeutic treatment in the previous 6 months, and those who had scheduled one in the following 6 months. Ten treatment ses-sions were applied. Each session included a bath and one or two additional techniques, which varied in each case, depending on the characteristics and preferences of the patient. The variables were gathered before initiating the treatment, and at 1, 3 and 6-months post-treatment. Results: The study included 49 individuals with an average age of 71.0 (SD 4.79) years. The variable “current health state” of EuroQol 5D-5L increased by 6.73 [-13.44 to -2.53] points and 6.26 [-12.07 to -0.46] in the first and third month, respectively. Pain was the dimension in which the largest number of participants reduced the level of their response in all the follow-up periods. Functionality showed an improvement of 0.196 [0.060 to 0.332] in the third month. Conclusions: The beneficial effects of balneotherapy on the health-related quality of life and functionality in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis can be positive.. 
Keywords: Balneotherapy, rheumatoid arthritis, quality of life, functionality.