Therapeutic Benefits of Balneotherapy on Quality of Life of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review Fernández González, María Fernández Lao, Carolina Martín Martín, Lydia María González Santos, Ángela López Garzón, María de la Cabeza Ortiz Comino, Lucía Lozano Lozano, Mario Balneotherapy Rheumatoid arthritis Quality of life This paper has external funding for publication from the "Catedra Hammam Al Andalus I + D + I en Bienestar Humano" (Hammam Al Andalus Chair in Human Well-being), University of Granada, Spain. Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory rheumatic disease. RA symptoms make the disease disabling and strongly impact the quality of life of patients. Among the available forms of treatment, balneotherapy seems to be one of the most common forms of nonpharmacological treatment for rheumatic disease. The aim was to explore the effectiveness of balneotherapy for improving the quality of life of patients with RA. Methods: Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science and The Cochrane library were searched for randomized or clinical controlled trials published in English or Spanish until May 2021. Risk of bias of included articles were assessed using the Cochrane tool. A total 535 records were retrieved, and seven met the inclusion criteria. All the included studies showed statistically significant improvements in the quality of life of patients who received balneotherapy treatment despite differences in treatment administration. Sessions should be approximately 20 min long and use natural mineral waters enriched with elements, or mud, at a water temperature between 35–38ºC. Conclusions: Balneotherapy benefits the quality of life of people with RA. The obtained results show positive effects for both mineral bathing and immersion in sand or mud on the quality of life of people who suffer from RA. 2022-01-31T11:49:40Z 2022-01-31T11:49:40Z 2021-12-15 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Fernandez-Gonzalez, M... [et al.]. Therapeutic Benefits of Balneotherapy on Quality of Life of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 13216. [https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413216] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/72560 10.3390/ijerph182413216 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI