Skip Navigation


Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on February 4, 2009
Rheumatology 2009 48(4):390-394; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken504
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
48/4/390    most recent
ken504v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Baron, M.
Right arrow Articles by Schulz, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Baron, M.
Right arrow Articles by Schulz, J.
Related Collections
Right arrow Osteoarthritis and Cartilage
Right arrow Rheumatoid Arthritis
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Evaluation of the clinimetric properties of the Early Inflammatory Arthritis—self-administered comorbidity questionnaire

Murray Baron1,2, Orit Schieir1,2, Marie Hudson1,2, Russell Steele3, Audrée Janelle-Montcalm1, Jessica Bernstein1, Michael Starr2, Michel Gagné2, Michael Stein2, Harb Kang2, Morton Kapusta2, François Couture2, Mary-Ann Fitzcharles2, Bruce Garfield2, Henri A. Ménard2, Laeora Berkson1, Christian Pineau2, Andrzej Gutkowski2, Michel Zummer4, Jean-Pierre Mathieu4, Suzanne Mercille4, Sophie Ligier4, Jiri Krasny2, Carole Bertrand4, Sai Yan Yuen4 and Jan Schulz2

1Division of Rheumatology, Sir Mortimer B. Davis – Jewish General Hospital, 2Division of Rheumatology, 3Department of Mathematics, McGill University and 4Service de Rhumatologie, Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Correspondence to: Murray Baron, Division of Rheumatology, Sir Mortimer B. Davis – Jewish General Hospital, Suite A-216, 3755 Cote Sainte Catherine Rd, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 1E2. E-mail: mbaron{at}rhu.jgh.mcgill.ca


  Abstract

Objectives. To adapt the self-administered comorbidity questionnaire (SCQ) into the Early Inflammatory Arthritis—SCQ (EIA-SCQ) and assess its clinimetric properties in EIA.

Methods. The EIA-SCQ and indices of disease activity, function, pain, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and health resource utilization were administered to 320 patients with EIA. Twenty patients completed the EIA-SCQ a second time 1 week later. Construct validity was evaluated by testing the hypotheses that a valid comorbidity index would correlate well with age, weakly with HRQoL and recent resource utilization and poorly with indices of disease activity, function and pain.

Results. The intra-class correlation coefficient between repeat scores was 0.93 (95% CI 0.83–0.97). Kappa values for individual items ranged from 0.64 to 1.0. EIA-SCQ scores correlated moderately with age (Tau B = 0.29, P < 0.001) and weakly with function (HAQ-DI Tau B = 0.09, P = 0.03), pain (McGill Pain Questionnaire Tau B = 0.09, P = 0.05), some measures of HRQoL [the SF-36 mental component score (MCS) Tau B = – 0.08, P < 0.05; World Health Organization Disease Assessment Schedule II score Tau B = 0.09, P = 0.03] and a measure of resource utilization (number of tests in the last 4 months Tau B = 0.10, P = 0.04). The EIA-SCQ did not correlate with other measures of disease activity, another HRQoL measure [SF-36 physical component score (PCS)] or other measures of resource utilization.

Conclusions. The EIA-SCQ is reliable and valid for use in EIA. It has the potential to become a useful measure of comorbidity in outcome studies of EIA when the resources for a full medical chart review are unavailable.

KEY WORDS: RA, Arthritis, Comorbidity, Psychometrics, Questionnaires, Early inflammation

Submitted 8 April 2008; revised version accepted 15 December 2008.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.