Towards a measure of patient-perceived handicap in rheumatoid arthritis

The impact of chronic disease on an individual depends not only on the severity of the disease, but on his/her life role i.e. his/her needs, expectations etc. The World Health Organization expresses the impact of chronic disease in terms of impairment, disability and handicap, where handicap is the social disadvantage resulting from disease. This article argues that the assessment of patient-perceived handicap is essential to the clinical management of chronic disease because it provides the physician with clinically relevant information about the meaning of disease for each patient, enabling treatment and intervention to be tailored to meet individuals' needs. The development of a method for assessing patient-perceived handicap using patient profiles with the object of supplying the physician with a simple clinical tool is described.