Deficits of routine occupational therapy services in rheumatic diseases: results of the RheumaDat study

The purpose of the present study is to describe the frequency and potential determinants of occupational therapy routine services in patients with rheumatic diseases. The study is based on a secondary analysis of the RheumaDat database. The results of the survey on 907 patients were analyzed regarding frequency of occupational therapy routine services and related sociodemographic and disease-specific variables. Approximately 8% of the study population received occupational therapy, patients with rheumatoid arthritis representing the largest proportion of these at 13%. Only patients with osteoarthritis showed a clear treatment pattern. Patients from this group receiving occupational therapy were older, had a longer duration of disease and were more affected. No clear appraisal of the therapy status in the rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia group could be made. The results indicate shortages and the lack of a clear system in occupational therapy routine services in patients with different rheumatic diseases.