The impacts of state and trait anxiety as moderated by perceived social support among Nigerian patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objectives: To assess the levels of state and trait anxiety and determine their relationships with perceived social support among Nigerian patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Material And Methods: A cross-sectional study of 50 patients satisfying the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European League against Rheumatism Classification Criteria for RA was conducted. Anxiety was assessed using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), perceived social support by the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL), health-related quality of life (HRQoL) by the Medical Outcome Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and disability by the Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (HAQ-DI).

Results: The mean state anxiety (STAI-S), trait anxiety (STAI-T) and ISEL scores among the patients were 35.2 ±10.2, 36.7 ±8.8 and 87.2 ±21.2 respectively. Pathological degrees of state and trait anxiety were found among 7 (14%) and 5 (10.4%) patients respectively. There was a negative correlation between the STAI-T score and the ISEL score ( = -0.362, = 0.011). However, the correlation between STAI-S and ISEL was not statistically significant ( = -0.193, = 0.179). A moderate-to-high correlation was found between each of STAI-S and STAI-T and all subscales and component summaries of the SF-36. ISEL score correlated significantly with role emotional ( = 0.377, = 0.008), mental health ( = 0.482, ≤ 0.001) and bodily pain ( = 0.320, = 0.025) domains and the mental component summary ( = 0.380, = 0.007) of SF-36. HAQ-DI correlated strongly with both STAI-S ( = 0.735, ≤ 0.001) and STAI-T ( = 0.575, ≤ 0.001) but not with ISEL.

Conclusions: State and trait anxiety correlate negatively with all aspects of HRQoL and disability, and there is a notable relationship between perceived social support and trait anxiety as well as the mental aspect of HRQoL.