Arthritis care & research
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Arthritis care & research · Aug 2014
Cost offsets to medicare attributable to receipt of hip, knee, and shoulder arthroplasty.
To estimate trends in numbers of and Medicare payments for hip, knee, and shoulder arthroplasties for beneficiaries with osteoarthritis (OA) and potential savings to Medicare from arthroplasty during followup. ⋯ Provision of hip but not knee and shoulder arthroplasty generated savings to Medicare during followup, but even for hip arthroplasty, the cost offset during followup was small relative to the program cost for the procedure itself.
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Arthritis care & research · Jul 2014
Comparative StudyAn epidemiologic internet survey of fibromyalgia and chronic pain in Japan.
To determine the epidemiologic features and symptom characteristics of fibromyalgia (FM) in Japan, and compare them with those for other chronic pain (CP) diagnoses. ⋯ Because FM usually presents with more severe and more widely distributed pain, as well as more nonpainful symptoms than CP, our results suggest that FM is a different clinical phenotype of CP.
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Arthritis care & research · Jul 2014
Nocturnal knee pain increases with the severity of knee osteoarthritis, disturbing patient sleep quality.
Sleep disturbances frequently accompany chronic pain from osteoarthritis (OA). Effective management of sleep disturbances may require successful treatment of chronic pain, a key factor in the clinical evaluation of knee OA. However, the relationship between the severity of knee OA and sleep quality is unclear. Our purpose was to correlate the prevalence of nocturnal knee pain with different OA severity levels and to determine its influence on sleep quality. ⋯ The prevalence of nocturnal knee pain and sleep problems increased with the severity of OA, impacting QOL. These results suggest the necessity of appropriate nocturnal pain control.
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Arthritis care & research · Jun 2014
Understanding presenteeism in patients with ankylosing spondylitis: contributing factors and association with sick leave.
To understand the impact of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) on presenteeism and to explore its relationship to sick leave. ⋯ AS hinders patients' work, mainly in time management and physical demand domains. The WLQ and ASQoL are able to identify patients who incur sick leave. Helplessness contributes independently to the level of presenteeism and the length of sick leave.