ArticleBMC rheumatology2025
Studying the effect of self-care education based on conceptual mapping on the pain severity of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A non-randomized quasi-experimental study.
Article in BMC rheumatology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRheumatoid arthritis is a chronic and progressive disease, the most important and common symptom of which is pain. Considering the physical and psychological effects of pain on health and well-being, it seems that finding new methods such as conceptual mapping to teach self-care to patients is important for controlling and reducing pain. This study was conducted to determine the effect of self-care education based on conceptual mapping on the pain severity of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
methodsThis is a non-randomized quasi-experimental study conducted between September and December 2023 at Imam Khomeini Hospital’s rheumatology clinic in Tehran, Iran. A total of 70 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were selected through convenience sampling and sequentially allocated to control (n = 35) and intervention (n = 35) groups. The intervention group received two face-to-face, individualized self-care education sessions using concept maps and followed up with weekly phone calls for one month, while the control group received routine clinical education. The pain severity of patients was measured and compared before and after the intervention in both control and intervention groups. The data collection tools in this study included a demographic information questionnaire and the rheumatoid arthritis pain scale (RAPS). Descriptive statistics (frequency distribution tables and numerical indices of minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential t-tests (Chi-square, Fisher’s exact, and independent t-tests) were used to analyze the findings. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.
resultsThe results showed no statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of pain severity before the intervention (p = 0.295). However, after the intervention, this difference was significant (p < 0.001), and the intervention group had a lower mean pain score compared to the control group. Results of the paired t-test in the intervention group indicated that mean pain scores decreased significantly following the intervention compared to before (p < 0.001). Still, this difference was not significant in the control group (p = 0.488).
conclusionThe findings suggest that self-care education based on concept mapping may contribute to reducing pain severity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and could serve as a complementary strategy for pain management. Nevertheless, due to the limitations of the current study, further research is warranted to validate these results and assess their generalizability.
trial registrationThe protocol of this clinical trial has been registered in the Iranian Clinical Trial Registration Center (registration code: IRCT20230405057828N1). Registered 23 January 2023- registered_while_recruiting, date of first recruitment: 30 May 2023, https://www.irct.ir/ .
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.