title: Development and preliminary assessment of a simple measure of overall status in rheumatoid arthritis (OSRA) for routine clinical use.
abstract: We describe the development and initial assessment of a simple measure of overall status in rheumatoid arthritis (OSRA) for use in the routine clinical setting. The measure is constructed in four parts: demographic details, activity score, damage score and treatment category. It requires no laboratory tests and uses details collected routinely during a clinic visit. It was validated in a series of 488 patients. The measure proved acceptable and demonstrated face, content, construct and discriminant validity. OSRA will be useful as an audit tool in the serial follow-up of RA patients and in describing the characteristics of a population of such patients.
authors.affiliation: ARC Epidemiology Research Unit, University of Manchester.
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Symmons
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Hassell
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Gunatillaka
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schollum
authors.forename: P T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Dawes
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018737:Hand Strength; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000503:physiopathology; D010147:Pain Measurement; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors