Upplevelser av bassängträning hos en grupp personer med diagnosen Reumatoid artrit

Sammanfattning: Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease. Physical activity is a cornerstone in the treatment. Hydrotherapy is an appreciated alternative for many patients. Quantitative research has been made in the area but to the authors’ knowledge, no qualitative studies have been made. Purpose: To explore and analyse the experiences of hydrotherapy among a group of people with RA with a focus on the impacts of the exercise form. Design and method: Explorative, descriptive qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews with five people with RA. A qualitative content analysis was chosen to process data. Results: Three themes were identified: The pros of exercising in water; The cons of exercising in water; When hydrotherapy is especially important. These themes contain eight categories: Effects; Important in implementation; Positive attributes of the pool; Community; Negative attributes of the pool; Availability; Bad periods; Disease severity; Konklusion: The informants especially highlighted the exercise effects, social aspects and the properties of water as pros. The hard pool floor and the inavailability were the primary cons experienced. Hydrotherapy seemed particularly incentivized when coupled with high disease severity. This study can serve as a foundation when choosing a physical activity intervention for this group. Future studies with similar purposes should include a larger sample.