Table 3 Quotes related to theme 1: variations in perceptions and knowledge about RA

1

“It’s a progressive, degenerative disorder that we know will become worse if you don’t look at halting the disease progression; hence, the need for disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs.” P03*, Pharmacist

2

“So rheumatoid arthritis, it's an auto-immune disease so the main symptoms we're looking at are joint pain, swelling, redness, warmth, maybe some fatigue, and fever.” P16, Pre-registration pharmacist

3

“I think the typical patient is probably over 50 but it can happen to a child. A child can have it and the parents are not aware. It doesn’t get diagnosed for a long time, I don’t think, in children because it’s not something you associate with children…” P02, Pharmacy technician

4

“The rheumatoid, is that autoimmune, is that right? So you want, more so get pain and swelling of the joints […] more so than osteoarthritis where that’s more wear and tear over years.” P09, Pharmacist

5

Hold on, osteoarthritis, that’s just the general term and rheumatoid arthritis is the more specific term that talks about the joints, mainly the fingers and everything. It’s an interchangeable term as far as I know”. P19, Pre-registration pharmacist

6

“I don’t think it’s specifically between men or women either, from my knowledge.” P04, Pharmacist

7

“100% yes of course, I think arthritis is definitely a serious condition, it’s affecting your day-to-day life, you’re in pain, you have to constantly rely on painkillers to go about your day.” P14, Pre-registration pharmacist

8

“Generally, in all honesty, if they come to me for RA, they’ve probably suffered for months, so another week or two is neither here nor there really, is it? I’m aware of the pressure on GP practice appointments.” P01, Pharmacist

9

“Yeah, I’d say the earlier you’ve started treating it the, it’s good ‘cause you can slow down like the progression.” P10, Pharmacist

10

“With rheumatoid arthritis, if the inflammation gets to a peak then the medication won’t have as much of an effect. Also, because it is physically debilitating, we always aim for prevention. So, in that way, I would say early treatment is preferred.” P19, Pre-registration pharmacist

11

“I don’t know whether other people are probably in the same boat as me but they probably weren’t as knowledgeable on rheumatoid arthritis and how important it is to intervene early.” P04, Pharmacist

12

“You’ve got things like Methotrexate, which seems to be the main thing. They also use NSAIDs and things like Sulfasalazine. Methotrexate would be the main one that springs to mind for rheumatoid arthritis. But they have to have blood level checks and toxicity checks for that.” P05, Pharmacist

13

“In terms of medication for that in particular, so we offer NSAIDs. Maybe a corticosteroid if it's an acute – maybe if we're injecting into the joint or DMARDs, so anything like methotrexate, Leflunomide, things like that. Or any biologic treatment after that, so Etanercept, Abatacept, that kind of stuff.” P16, Pre-registration pharmacist