RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Use of “spydergrams” to present and interpret SF-36 health-related quality of life data across rheumatic diseases
JF Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
JO Ann Rheum Dis
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and European League Against Rheumatism
SP 1800
OP 1804
DO 10.1136/ard.2009.115550
VO 68
IS 12
A1 V Strand
A1 B Crawford
A1 J Singh
A1 E Choy
A1 J S Smolen
A1 D Khanna
YR 2009
UL http://ard.bmj.com/content/68/12/1800.abstract
AB The Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) is a generic measure of health-related quality of life (HRQOL), validated and cross-culturally translated, which has been extensively utilised in rheumatology. In randomised controlled trials and observational studies, SF-36 provides rich data regarding HRQOL; but as typically portrayed, patterns of disease and treatment-associated effects can be difficult to discern. “Spydergrams” offer a simplified means to visualise complex results across all domains of SF-36 in a single figure: depicting disease and population-specific patterns of decrements in HRQOL compared with age and gender-matched normative data, as well as providing a tool for interpreting complex treatment-associated or longitudinal changes. Utilising spydergrams as a standard format to illustrate and report changes in SF-36 across different rheumatic diseases can greatly facilitate analyses and interpretations of clinical trial results, as well as providing patients an accessible means to compare baseline scores and treatment-associated improvements with normative data from individuals without arthritis. Furthermore, SF-6D utility scores based on mean changes across all eight domains of SF-36 are suggested as a quantitative means of summarising changes illustrated by spydergrams, offering a universal metric for cost-effectiveness analyses of therapeutic interventions.