Pain beliefs influence understanding of pain mechanisms and outcomes. This study in rheumatologic conditions sought to determine a relationship between beliefs about pain and functioning. Participants in Arthritis New Zealand’s (ANZ) exercise and education programmes were used. Demographic data and validated instruments used included the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale 2nd version-Short Form (AIMS2-SF) to measure functioning, and two scales of organic and psychological beliefs in Pain Beliefs Questionnaires (PBQ) to measure pain beliefs. 236 Members of ANZ were surveyed anonymously with AIMS2-SF and PBQ, with a 61% response rate; 144 responses were entered into the database. This study used α of 0.05 and a 1-β of 0.8 to detect for significant effect size estimated to be . Analysis revealed a significant relationship between organic beliefs scale of PBQ and functioning of AIMS2-SF, with an value of 0.32 and value of 0.00008. No relationship was found between psychological beliefs scale of PBQ and AIMS2-SF. Organic pain beliefs are associated with poorer functioning. Psychological pain beliefs are not. Beliefs might have been modified by ANZ programmes. Clinicians should address organic pain beliefs early in consultation. Causal links between organic pain beliefs and functioning should be clarified. 1. Introduction Beliefs about pain are an emerging area of research in the biopsychosocial model of pain. Research shows that negative pain beliefs have a detrimental impact on patients’ overall health, self-efficacy, and function [1]. With the intervention of a self-management programme of exercise and relaxation for arthritis sufferers, positive changes from negative pain beliefs correlate with improvement in self-efficacy, [2]. The experience of pain is a significant problem in sufferers with rheumatoid arthritis; it has been recently shown to be an important predictor for psychosocial health in general [3]. Furthermore, for rheumatoid arthritis, both the extent of the disease and the belief that pain could be capably managed have been found to impact on functioning [4, 5]. Beliefs have been defined as personally or culturally shared cognitive configurations [6]. These differ from attitudes that are defined as feelings about events. Beliefs are thoughts or mental appraisals and understanding of these events. These form the preexisting concepts about the nature of reality for the individual. These thoughts may be generalised or specific to certain contexts, mould the individual’s perception of the environment, and shape the meaning of their experiences
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