Development, content, and process evaluation of a coping intervention for patients with rheumatic diseases

Rheumatic diseases, like many other chronic diseases, represent an important public health problem. To reduce the impact of rheumatic and other chronic diseases, the appropriate management of these conditions should be encouraged through the use of established educational programs. This article describes the development and content of a coping intervention for groups of patients with rheumatic diseases aimed at increasing social support and quality of life. Patients' and supervisors' perceptions of the coping intervention as the results of a process evaluation will also be discussed. The purpose of this paper is to provide information for health educators who want to use the coping intervention with patients with rheumatic diseases or who want to develop a similar intervention for other target populations. Results of the process evaluation show that the intervention was well received by the patients as well as the supervisors.