title: Measuring function and health status in rheumatic disease clinical trials.
abstract: We have summarized the limitations of traditional outcome measures in rheumatology, reviewed the growing field of measures emphasizing the patient's perception of improvement, and provided guidelines for choosing a specific instrument for a clinical trial. Newer measures have measurement properties equal to or surpassing traditional measures, but no one ADL or quality-of-life instrument can be used to assess outcome in every situation as no one test can indicate success of a treatment in a chronic disease. An instrument needs to be judged by the following criteria: Is it metrically sound? Does it fit the socio-demographic characteristics of the target population? Does it measure the specific changes which are likely to be affected by the treatment? Will it capture or measure the expected changes?
mesh_terms: D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life