The validity and reliability of self‐administered joint counts are reported in a group of32 rheumatoid arthritis patients being followed at a university‐based practice located in theSoutheast region of the United States, serving low to middle income urban and rural patients. Adequate inter‐rater reliability among the patients' and the research assistant's joint counts was obtained for upper (r = 0.74), lower (r = 0.96), and upper and lower extremities (r = 0.89). Convergent validity correlations for pain, helplessness, and the Joint Alignment and Motion scale were found to be adequate. We conclude that rheumatoid arthritis patients can reliably assess their joint counts. Self joint counts along with other validated self‐reportsof health status may be applicable to busy outpatient settings, as well as in clinical research.

?'his study examined the validity and reliability of full and short versions of the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales (AIMS). One hundred fifty-five patlents with Rheumatoid Arthritis followed at a Universi ty Hospital Rheumatology Clinic completed the full AIMS at baseline, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months. After reducing the 45-item AIMS to 22, alpha reliabilities and test-retest correlations showed that, with the exception of test-retest correlations for mobility at 6 months and for pain at 12 und 18 months, tne full and short scales were comparably reliable. Convergent validity correlations with theoretically related scales were also comparable. However, some of the short scales did not detect the same differences over time that the full scales did. Specifically, the short mobility, pain, anxiety, and depression scales were not as sensitive to change as the full scales.

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