Elaboration of the preliminary Rheumatoid Arthritis Impact of Disease (RAID) score: a EULAR initiative
- L Gossec1,2,
- M Dougados1,
- N Rincheval2,
- A Balanescu3,
- D T Boumpas4,
- S Canadelo5,
- L Carmona6,
- J-P Daurès2,
- M de Wit5,
- B A C Dijkmans7,
- M Englbrecht8,
- Z Gunendi9,
- T Heiberg10,
- J R Kirwan11,
- E M Mola12,
- M Matucci-Cerinic13,
- K Otsa14,
- G Schett8,
- T Sokka15,
- G A Wells16,
- G J Aanerud10,
- A Celano13,
- A Dudkin14,
- C Hernandez12,
- K Koutsogianni4,
- F N Akca9,
- A-M Petre3,
- P Richards11,
- M Scholte-Voshaar7,
- G Von Krause1,
- T K Kvien17,18
- 1Paris Descartes University, Medicine Faculty, UPRES-EA 4058, APHP, Rheumatology B Department, Cochin Hospital, Paris France
- 2Epidemiology and Statistics Department, Montpellier Medicine Faculty, Montpellier, France
- 3Research Center of Rheumatic Diseases, “Sf Maria” Hospital, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Bucharest, Romania
- 4Rheumatology, Clinical Immunology and Allergy, University of Crete, Faculty of Medicine, Heraklion, Greece
- 5EULAR standing committee of People with Arthritis/Rheumatism in Europe (PARE), Zurich, Switzerland
- 6Research Unit, Spanish Foundation of Rheumatology, Madrid, Spain
- 7Rheumatology, VU University Medical Center and Jan van Breemen Institute, The Netherlands
- 8Department of Internal Medicine 3, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
- 9University of Gazi, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Division of Rheumatology, Ankara, Turkey
- 10Department for Research and Education, Ulleval University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- 11University of Bristol, Academic Rheumatology Unit, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol, UK
- 12Rheumatology Department, Hospital Universitario La Paz, Madrid, Spain
- 13Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology AOUC, Denothe Centre, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy
- 14Rheumatology Department, Tallinn Central Hospital, Estonia
- 15Jyväskylä Central Hospital, Jyväskylä, Finland
- 16University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- 17Department of Rheumatology, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- 18Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Correspondence to Dr L Gossec, Service de Rhumatologie B, Hôpital Cochin, 27, rue du faubourg Saint-Jacques, 75014 Paris, France; laure.gossec{at}cch.aphp.fr
- Accepted 14 November 2008
- Published Online First 3 December 2008
Abstract
Background: Current response criteria in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) usually assess only three patient-reported outcomes (PROs): pain, functional disability and patient global assessment. Other important PROs such as fatigue are not included.
Objective: To elaborate a patient-derived composite response index for use in clinical trials in RA, the RA Impact of Disease (RAID) score.
Methods: Ten patients identified 17 domains or areas of health relevant for inclusion in the score, then 96 patients (10 per country in 10 European countries) ranked these domains in order of decreasing importance. The seven most important domains were selected. Instruments were chosen for each domain after extensive literature research of psychometric properties and expert opinion. The relative weight of each of the domains was obtained from 505 patients who were asked to “distribute 100 points” among the seven domains. The average ranks of importance of these domains were then computed.
Results: The RAID score includes seven domains with the following relative weights: pain (21%), functional disability (16%), fatigue (15%), emotional well-being (12%), sleep (12%), coping (12%) and physical well-being (12%). Weights were similar across countries and across patient and disease characteristics. Proposed instruments include the Health Assessment Questionnaire and numerical ratings scales.
Conclusion: The preliminary RAID score is a patient-derived weighted score to assess the impact of RA. An ongoing study will allow the final choice of questionnaires and assessment of validity. This score can be used in clinical trials as a new composite index that captures information relevant to patients.
Footnotes
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Appendices 1 and 2 are published online only at http://ard.bmj.com/content/vol68/issue11
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Funding EULAR grant CLI.013.
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Competing interests None.
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Ethics approval All applicable regulations were respected and the project was accepted by ethical committees in participating countries.
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This project, supported financially by EULAR, was convened by TKK, facilitated by LG, and has as steering committee one other rheumatologist (MD), two patients with RA (SC and MdW), one epidemiologist (LC) and one allied health professional (TH). Ten countries were involved in the elaboration of the RAID: Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Romania, Turkey and United Kingdom. Germany and Finland have subsequently become part of the validation project.








