[Work disability work in the first year of chronic polyarthritis. A comparison with members of the legal health health insurance].

Even though sick-leave (SL) is a direct consequence of the reduction of work capacity due to the disease, this has not gained much attention in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Therefore, the occurrence and duration of SL (defined as the history of SL as certified by a physician) was determined in a cross-sectional multicenter study of early RA (< or = 12 months duration) and compared to the members of the compulsory health insurance. One hundred and thirty four gainfully employed consecutive outpatients fulfilled > or = 4 of 7 ACR 1987 criteria of RA: 85 females (63% of 134 patients), age 50 years (median), disease duration 7 months (median). SL due to RA occurred in 102 of 134 patients (76%). The duration of SL because of RA was 11 days per month (about one-third of the disease duration) in males and 8 days per months (one-quarter of the time since the onset of RA) in females. SL due to RA was five times longer than expected from controls. In addition to SL because of RA, SL due to other causes occurred with a similar duration as in controls. Already in the first year of RA the large proportion of patients with SL due to RA and the long SL duration indicate the extent of substantial handicap concerning gainful employment.