Abstract: Objective: To investigate the status of disability acceptance in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) joint deformities patients and analyze its influencing factors, aiming to provide a reference for formulating scientific and effective intervention plans of disability acceptance in RA patients with joint deformities. Methods: Convenience sampling was applied to recruit 438 RA joint deformities patients from a rheumatology and immunology outpatient department of a tertiary grade A hospital in Ningxia from November 2024 to March 2025. The general information questionnaire, Acceptance of Disability Scale, Visual Analogue Scale, Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index, Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand, and Signals of Functional Impairment were used for cross-sectional survey. Multiple linear regression was used for influencing factor analysis. Results: The disability acceptance score for RA joint deformities patients was 81.53±21.30, The average score of the total items was 2.55±0.67. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that BMI, medical insurance, regular exercise, morning stiffness duration, disease stage, pain, fatigue, physical function and hand function were the main influencing factors of disability acceptance (P<0.05), accounting for 57.30% of the total variance. Conclusion: The disability acceptance of RA joint deformities patients is at a moderate level. Medical staff should provide targeted intervention measures based on the preliminary explored influencing factors in this study to enhance their disability acceptance level.

Key words: Rheumatoid Arthritis; disability acceptance; joint deformity; influencing factor