Use of self ‐ administered joint counts in the evaluation of rheumatoid arthritis patients

Abstract

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.

A self-report Thompson articular index: What does it measure?

“…A high level of agreement (Pearson r = 0.89) between joint scores of patients and assessors was also found in another study with the same graded self-report index of joint tenderness [3]. In this study, high correlations were found between both patients' and assessors' joint scores and self-report assessments of pain and learned helplessness (Pearson r's ranging from 0.50 to 0.73) [3].…”

“…Four studies [2,3,5,6] have not evaluated test-retest reliability; this study and two others [1,4] have evaluated test-retest reliability, and found it to be good. In some studies [1][2][3] a high agreement between patients' self-report joint scores and physician derived scores was found, while in this study and others [4,5] only a low to moderate agreement was found. In two studies [2,3] the self-report joint scores were not validated against laboratory measures of disease activity.…”

“…In this study, high correlations were found between both patients' and assessors' joint scores and self-report assessments of pain and learned helplessness (Pearson r's ranging from 0.50 to 0.73) [3]. Test-retest reliability, relationships with laboratory measures of disease activity and sensitivity to change were not examined.…”

“…Lately several different self-report forms of joint counts have been developed [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Reliable and valid self-report joint counts can be an inexpensive and less time-consuming alternative for joint assessment by a clinician.…”

Patient self‐report RADAI (Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity Index) joint counts on an MDHAQ (Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire) in usual care of consecutive patients with rheumatic diseases other than rheumatoid arthritis

“…RADAI scores are correlated significantly with tender and swollen joint counts in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients (3)(4)(5)(6)(7). Although developed initially for RA, the authors suggested that the RADAI could be informative in patients with other rheumatic diseases.…”