[Analysis and evaluation of the rehabilitation measures in a 5-year prospective study of chronic polyarthritis in adults].

: 328 patients with a definite or classical adult rheumatoid arthritis were studied over a five-year treatment period. Two groups of patients were established from this total population. One group was treated primarily on an outpatient basis, with the treatment consisting always in medical care given by the general practitioner or a hospital outpatient department. The other group received inpatient treatment in a special rehabilitation centre once or twice a year, or according to necessity. During these measures the whole range of medical, vocational and social care was provided, as appropriate to the clients' needs. On evaluation of this five-year period, it is found that the patient group who had undergone periodical rehabilitative treatment every year demonstrated markedly better functional results than did the group which had almost exclusively received medication.