title: Course of patient-reported health outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis: comparison of longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe health outcomes reported by patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), i.e., pain, disability and health-related quality of life, as a function of disease duration in a longitudinal approach, and to compare the course of patient-reported health outcomes by a longitudinal versus a cross-sectional approach.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected with 4 series of questionnaires between 1997 and 2002 among patients with RA (maximum number = 882) of varying disease duration. The course of patient-reported health outcomes as a function of disease duration was evaluated using both longitudinal data and cross-sectional data of the first series.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The course of RA shows a different pattern for various health outcomes. We observed similar trends in health outcomes in this large patient sample using the longitudinal and the cross-sectional approach.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although longterm consequences of RA are preferably assessed in longer duration followup studies, cross-sectional studies, including patients with a broad range of disease durations, seem to provide fairly reliable estimates of the course of health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. i.rupp@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rupp
authors.forename: Hendriek C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Boshuizen
authors.forename: Leo D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Roorda
authors.forename: Huibert J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Dinant
authors.forename: Catharina E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Jacobi
authors.forename: Geertrudis
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: van den Bos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires