High use of healthcare services is characteristic for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Health spas have provided care for patients with RA in many countries, and many patients with early RA used to be kept in hospitals for several weeks.1 In the 1970s, Swedish researchers reported that over a 13-year follow-up period, patients with RA were admitted to hospital more than twice as often, and spent three times as many days in hospital, as control subjects,2 primarily because of high inflammatory activity. Over the past two decades, however, many rheumatology wards have been closed and rheumatology beds in departments were given away, especially in the Nordic countries.
展开▼
