The Development and Use of a Patient Knowledge Questionnaire in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

A multi-choice Patient Knowledge Questionnaire (PKQ) was developed for use with patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Test/re-test was used to test its stability (r = 0.81), and Kuder Richardson formula 20 (r = 0.72) for internal consistency. Seventy randomly selected RA patients then completed the PKQ in a rheumatology out-patient clinic of a large teaching hospital. There was a wide variation in total scores ranging from 3 to 28 out of 30. Total scores correlated with years of general education (P less than 0.05) but not with disease duration or age. Sixty-two per cent of patients knew that the cause of RA is, as yet, unknown but 27% thought it could be caused by injury and 11% by cold damp weather. Fifty-two per cent had no idea why they had blood tests. All but four patients were taking some form of medication but there was widespread confusion about disease-modifying drugs and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Exercise was reasonably well understood but many patients were unable to differentiate between methods of energy conservation and joint protection. This study highlights the need for careful individual knowledge assessment by use of tools such as the PKQ and effective patient education programmes.

Need for information and for involvement in decision making among patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A questionnaire survey

“…People also want to make the decisions about everyday problems, emphasizing the need for effective education in self management approaches. Another key finding of our study was that patient knowledge of RA is limited, as found in previous studies (21,22). We found that older age, male sex, and lower level of formal education were associated with low RA knowledge scores.…”

Translation to Brazilian Portuguese, cultural adaptation and reproducibility of the questionnaire "Ankylosing Spondylitis: What do you know?"

“…No correlation was found between duration of the disease and knowledge of the disease, unlike what was seen in the British study, and in other studies on individuals with rheumatoid arthritis 20,21 and psoriatic arthritis. 22 The questionnaire showed satisfactory levels of inter and intraobserver reliability, with r = 0.813 and r = 0.790 for the two analyses, with high correlations.…”

“…Additionally, 73.6% of the patients were men. With regard to ethnicity, 59.5% were white, 5.2% black, 20.7% mixed race and 14.6% other ethnicities, such as brown and Asian. Axial disease was observed in 36.7% and axial involvement associated with peripheral and enthesis joints in 7.9%.…”

The effectiveness of nurse-led care in people with rheumatoid arthritis: A systematic review

“…Knowledge was measured using the Patient Knowledge Questionnaire (PKQ) (Hill et al, 1991) which assesses patient knowledge in 4 areas; disease process, drug therapy, exercise and joint protection techniques. PKQ scores range from 0 30 with higher scores reflecting greater knowledge.…”