Outcomes generated by patients with rheumatoid arthritis: how important are they?

Abstract

Outcomes generated by patients as important in RA, are generalizable and inclusive. The most important (independence, pain and mobility) are routinely treated and measured. The next most important (feeling well, fatigue) are infrequently addressed and deserve urgent consideration for measurement, treatment and research.

Patients' perceptions of fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis: Overwhelming, uncontrollable, ignored

“…However, unlike pain and disability, fatigue is rarely addressed as a treatment target in its own right, is infrequently reported separately in trials, and is not a recommended core outcome for clinical trials (1). Fatigue is a significant symptom experienced almost universally by patients with RA (88 -98%), often on a daily basis, and patients rate the impact and importance of fatigue as similar to pain (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7).…”

Willingness to pay for improvement of physical function among rheumatoid arthritis patients as measured by Health Assessment Questionnaire

“…The results of the questions evaluating the functional capacity of a patient were consistent with earlier studies. In these it has been found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis consider the ability to move to be important [10,11]. The patients in this study were also willing to pay the highest sum of money for a possible improvement of functional capacity of walking outdoors on flat ground.…”

“…The strength of the WTP method is its ability to separately emphasize the different functions in the HAQ. It has been found in earlier studies that health care professionals and RA patients emphasize different issues in the treatment outcomes [11,14]. The significance of, for instance, pain and functional deficits also differ among the patients during the different stages of the disease [15].…”

“…In addition, the function with worst functional capacity in each domain is used in forming the HAQ index, which may distort the actual functional capacity. It has been suggested that a tool parallel to HAQ would be developed, which would measure how the patients value different functions and would provide weighted values for the different functional deficits [11,14]. Monetary value is a concrete way of portraying subjective valuation and could be a starting point for the creation of such a tool.…”

Item Development and Face Validity of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Patient Priorities in Pharmacological Interventions Outcome Measures

“…First, differences have been shown between physician and patient assessments of outcomes such as pain, overall health, and physical and mental function [14]. Second, RA patients identify treatment outcomes that are not routinely measured, such as sleep, well-being, and normality [15][16][17], which may relate to disease activity.…”