title: Telephone interview strategy can be used for screening inflammatory back pain in the community.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Telephone surveys are less expensive and time-consuming for both interviewers and interviewees, with similar or even higher response rates than face-to-face interviews. In rheumatology, telephone technique has been used in a number of epidemiologic studies. In the present study, we conducted a telephone survey for screening inflammatory back pain (IBP) in the community.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and seventy-two patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) and 25 patients with chronic mechanical back pain were included. A telephone interview and a face-to-face interview was conducted by the same physician using a standardized questionnaire that elicited information on all the components of IBP addressed in the Calin, Berlin and ASAS (the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society) criteria sets. The telephone survey was repeated by another rheumatologist within the same week to assess the inter-rater agreement.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 172 patients with axSpA, 114 could be classified as ankylosing spondylitis (AS) according to the modified New York criteria (AS group).The remaining 58 patients had active sacroiliitis on magnetic resonance imaging and they constituted the non-radiographic axSpA group (nr-axSpA group). Calin's criteria showed the highest sensitivity but also the lowest specificity with both interview methods. Calin's criteria showed the best agreement between the interview methods (kappa = 0.60).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of our study indicate that telephone surveys based on Calin's criteria for IBP has a moderate, almost substantial agreement with face-to-face interviews and can be used as an easily applicable, less expensive and time-saving method in screening subjects for IBP.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Dilek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Solmaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ozgul
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gunduz
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Servet
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akar
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gercek
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Can
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Merih
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Birlik
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Yesim
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Akkoc
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Vedat
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gerdan
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fatos
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Onen
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nurullah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akkoc
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001416:Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003153:Community Health Services; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D058566:Sacroiliitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D013167:Spondylitis, Ankylosing / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone
keywords: ankylosing spondylitis; inflammatory back pain; telephone survey