Evaluation of an inpatient rheumatoid arthritis patient education program.

We evaluated an inpatient rheumatoid arthritis patient education program to determine whether patient knowledge improved and whether the improvement persisted after discharge. Patient knowledge was assessed by a multiple choice and true-false test given upon admission, after education, and 4 months following discharge. The treatment group increased their knowledge by 40% (p less than .05) on the post-intervention questionnaire and retained most of this knowledge over a 4-month period. A control group of outpatients demonstrated no significant improvement in knowledge. Inpatients particularly demonstrated a marked increase in their knowledge of physical therapy recommendations. This knowledge was acquired and maintained even though the patients were involved in numerous diagnostic and therapeutic interventions that could have distracted from the educational program.