title: Agreement between rheumatologist visit and lay interviewer telephone survey for screening for rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthropathy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate agreement between a rheumatologist visit and a telephone interview by a patient organization member, regarding the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or spondyloarthropathy (SpA) and the classification criteria for these two conditions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients underwent a standardized interview and physical examination by hospital-based rheumatologists, who diagnosed RA in 230 cases, SpA in 175, and other conditions (controls) in 195. Members of patient organizations then used a standardized questionnaire to interview the patients by telephone about their diagnosis and about 1987 ACR classification criteria for RA and the ESSG criteria for SpA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Agreement between the two sources of data was poor for the classification criteria but satisfactory for the diagnosis (kappa, 0.84 (0.81-0.87) for RA and 0.78 (0.75-0.81) for SpA).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Standardized telephone interviews conducted by patient organization members accurately identify the diagnosis made by rheumatologists based on a physical examination and medical record review, whereas agreement is poor regarding classification criteria for RA and SpA.
authors.affiliation: Rheumatology Department, Hôpital de la Cavale Blanche, CHU Brest, 29609 Brest cedex, France. alain.saraux@univ-brest.fr
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saraux
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guillemin
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fardellone
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guggenbuhl
authors.forename: Jehan Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Behier
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cantagrel
authors.forename: Liana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Euller-Ziegler
authors.forename: René Marc
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Flipo
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Juvin
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Le Loet
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Masson
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sany
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schaeverbeke
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Coste
mesh_terms: D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D009819:Office Visits; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D025242:Spondylarthropathies / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires