Skip to main content
. 2009 May 16;28(9):1073–1077. doi: 10.1007/s10067-009-1190-3

Table 2.

Differences in RA patients' educational needs by age, disease duration, gender and educational background

Managing pain Movement Feelings Arthritis process Treatments health professionals Self-help measures Support systems
Age (degrees of freedom (df) = 1) Age group ≤68 68+ ≤68 68+ ≤68 68+ ≤68 68+ ≤68 68+ ≤68 68+ ≤68 68+
N 71 60 77 65 76 68 70 63 72 64 76 62 73 66
Median score 2.5 2.0 3.0 3.0 2.5 1.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 3.5 3.5 2.5 1.5
H value 4.962*a 3.309 5.644*b 2.342 2.762 1.043 12.195*c
Disease duration (df = 1) Years ≤13 13+ ≤13 13+ ≤13 13+ ≤13 13+ ≤13 13+ ≤13 13+ ≤13 13+
N 73 57 76 64 74 68 73 59 72 64 76 59 74 64
Median score 2.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 3.0 3.5 2.0 2.5
H value 0.666 0.505 0.582 1.126 0.678 0.035 4.462*d
Gender (df = 1)
Gender Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
N 17 119 18 129 18 131 16 121 17 124 17 125 17 127
Median score 1.8 2.5 2.0 3.0 1.0 2.5 4.0 4.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.5 1.0 2.5
H value 1.404 1.127 0.729 0.274 1.499 0.810 3.376
Educational background (df = 2) Level 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
N 24 82 29 24 89 33 25 90 32 24 81 31 24 87 30 23 88 30 23 89 31
Median score 1.5 2.5 2.3 2.0 4.0 3.0 2.5 2.0 2.0 4.0 4.0 3.5 4.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 3.5 3.3 3.0 2.0 2.5
H value 4.080 4.122 0.782 1.386 4.484 2.172 0.751

Age (divided in ≤68 years and 68+ years, cut-off based on median age), disease duration (divided in ≤13 years and 13+ years, cut-off based on median duration), educational background (divided in 1: primary, 2: secondary and 3: tertiary)

df Degrees of freedom

*H value indicating significant associations (p < 0.05)

aManaging pain associated with age: group ≤68: mean rank = 72.7 and group 68+: mean rank = 58.1; p = 0.026

bFeelings associated with age: group ≤68: mean rank = 80.1 and group 68+: mean rank = 63.9; p = 0.018

cSupport systems associated with age: group ≤68: mean rank = 81.1 and group 68+: mean rank = 57.7; p = 0.000

dSupport systems associated with disease duration: group ≤13: mean rank = 63.0 and group 13+: mean rank = 77.1; p = 0.035