title: [Difficulties in the evaluation of the basic treatment of rheumatoid polyarthritis: a role for the scales of quality of life?].
abstract: Evaluation of the efficacy of basic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis comes up against a large number of difficulties: absence of any single validated criterion in the form of a composite index with weighting of different factors, need for long term trials without any change in combined treatment and difficulties keeping all patients in such trials until their completion. These problems have led to the use of global evaluation as activity criterion, accepting treatment withdrawals and changes in combined treatment. This conversion of explicative trials to pragmatic trials results in difficulties in their interpretation. Trials based upon a pragmatic approach using quality of life scales are efficacy criterion should resolve some of methodological problems which may be encountered in the evaluation of basic treatment of R.A. Quality of life scales investigate three essential areas: physical activity, the social dimension and the psychological domain of emotional existence. Certain specific questionnaires such as "AIMS" are particularly suitable for rheumatological use. These quality of life scales are designed to quantify the usefulness of basic treatment, enabling evaluation which completes knowledge which may be acquired in terms of efficacy in explicative trials.
authors.affiliation: Service de Rhumatologie, Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Avouac
mesh_terms: D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
vernacular_title: Difficultés de l'évaluation des traitements de fond de la polyarthrite rhumatoïde: une place pour les échelles de qualité de vie.?