The burden of rheumatoid arthritis. Based on a presentation by Frederick Wolfe, MD

The direct, indirect, and intangible costs of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) represent an enormous burden to patients, clinicians, and to society in general. Quality of life is consistently worse--at any age--for RA patients and they tend to die at younger ages. Lessening the burden may be possible through more accurate and careful measurement of quality of life, disease progression, and therapeutic outcomes. Predicting the likely progression of RA and determining which patients will show improvement and which can expect disability is important in discovering which therapeutic approaches are the most useful in ultimately lessening the burden of RA.