Article
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Persons with Rheumatoid Arthritis Challenge the Relevance of the Health Assessment Questionnaire: A Qualitative Study of Patient Perception
Version 1
: Received: 2 January 2017 / Approved: 3 January 2017 / Online: 3 January 2017 (11:32:52 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Abstract
Background. The Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (HAQ) is widely used to measure functional ability in persons with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). The instrument was developed with limited involvement from persons with RA, and their perception of the instrument has not been studied in depth. The aim of this study was to explore how persons with RA experience the use of the HAQ in care. Methods. Forty persons with RA were purposefully recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were then analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. Results. The participants questioned the relevance of the HAQ but nevertheless experienced that the instrument had a profound effect on their understanding of health and how care is delivered. The analysis resulted in three themes: Problems with individual items, meaning of the summative score, and effects on care and health perceptions. Conclusions. To make the HAQ relevant to persons with RA, it needs to be revised or to include an option to select items most meaningful to the respondent. To ensure relevance, the HAQ update should preferably be co-created by researchers, clinicians and persons with RA.
Keywords
Rheumatoid Arthritis; thematic analysis; Outcomes assessment; Qualitative Research; Patient reported outcome measures
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Nursing
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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