Health App Improves Mental Aspects of QOL for Patients With RA

Jul 10, 2024

Photo Credit: Pinkypills

A study involving 346 participants with RA showed that a health app led to a sustained improvement in the mental aspects of health-related QOL.

A German study involving 346 participants with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) showed that the digital health app RECLARIT led to a sustained improvement in the mental aspects of health-related QOL (HRQOL), fatigue, and depression. However, no influence on pain or physical function was detected.

RECLARIT is an internet-based health app designed for people with RA. The app provides methods and exercises—often relying on cognitive-behavioral therapy—and follows a holistic approach to enhance patients’ psychological QOL. To evaluate the app’s effectiveness. Frank Behrens, MD, and colleagues conducted a 2-armed randomized controlled trial including 354 adult patients with RA assigned to use RECLARIT in addition to standard-of-care or standard-of-care alone.

The primary endpoint was the change in HRQOL from baseline to month 3, as measured by the SF-36 Mental Component Summary (MCS) score. Secondary endpoints included depression, anxiety, fatigue, social work-related functioning, pain, physical function, and safety. The study participants had longstanding RA, about 50% were treated with biologics or a JAK inhibitor. “Unfortunately, no proper disease activity measurements were available in this study,” Prof. Behrens said.

At 3 months, SF-36 MCS was significantly higher in those using the app versus standard-of-care alone (38.6 vs 35.7; P=0.014), and this effect was maintained at 6 months (39.4 vs 36.4; P=0.02). Moreover, both fatigue and depression significantly improved with the use of the digital health app. No difference was observed in pain or physical function. “This is more an area where we would expect to see effects with our pharmacologic therapy,” Dr. Behrens commented.

The app can serve as a scalable and easily accessible option to reduce patient´s psychological distress by providing them with disease management and coping strategies. “We believe that adding this application to proper DMARD therapy might give us some positive impact on the mental health of our patients,” Dr. Behrens concluded.