The literature on education and behavioral and social research in rheumatology represents diverse areas. Studies of medical education continue to be concerned with the effects of health care reform, the subsequent estimates of personnel shortages, and proposals to meet these shortages. Patient education in rheumatology is concerned with new guidelines for establishing the credibility of intervention programs through randomized clinical trials. Social and behavioral research focuses on measurement issues in pain and depression, the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral interventions to enhance functioning, assessment of social and psychological functioning, and the influence of gender, class, and ethnicity on health outcomes in arthritis. A unifying framework that should be incorporated into professional, patient, and public education, as well as into clinical research protocols is the biopsychosocial model of illness. This model builds on the biomedical model of disease to include the underlying social, psychological, and cultural factors that influence course and outcome of the rheumatic diseases.
展开▼
