Role overload, pain and physical dysfunction in early rheumatoid or undifferentiated inflammatory arthritis in Canada

Patients (n？=？104) of 7.61？months mean duration of inflammatory arthritis completed self-report questionnaires on sociodemographics, disease characteristics and role overload. Pain was assessed using the Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) and physical functioning was measured with the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF-36) physical functioning score. Role overload was measured by the Role Overload Scale. Patients indicated the number of social roles they occupied from a total of the three typical roles; marital, parental and paid work.Participants’ mean age was 56？years and 70.2% were female. Role overload was not correlated to the number of social roles, however, it was positively associated with pain (p？=？0.004) and negatively associated with physical functioning (p？=？0.001). On multivariate analysis, role overload was negatively associated with physical functioning after controlling for the relevant sociodemographic variables.This study identifies a possible reciprocal relationship between role overload and physical functioning in patients with EIA.