Health Disparities Among Hispanics With Rheumatoid Arthritis: Delay in Presentation to Rheumatologists Contributes to Later Diagnosis and Treatment.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate referral and treatment delays by ethnicity/race in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated at an academic rheumatology center.

Methods: We reviewed the medical records of all RA patients evaluated at an outpatient clinic between 2011 and 2016 to identify newly diagnosed and naive-to-treatment patients. We determined the durations between symptom onset and first rheumatology visit and time to initiate treatment.

Disease Burden in Osteoarthritis Is Similar to That of Rheumatoid Arthritis at Initial Rheumatology Visit and Significantly Greater Six Months Later.

Objective: To analyze disease burden in osteoarthritis (OA) according to Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ)/Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3 (RAPID3) scores at the initial visit and the 6-month follow-up visit, compared with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a benchmark for high disease burden.

Methods: All patients with all diagnoses at the Rush University Medical Center Division of Rheumatology complete a paper MDHAQ at all visits, saved as a PDF in the electronic health record. MDHAQ 0-10 scores for physical function, pain, and patient global assessment (compiled into RAPID3 0-30 scores) and additional scales at the initial and 6-month follow-up visits, for new OA and RA patients seen from 2011 to 2017, were compared.

Discordance of global assessment by patients and physicians is higher in osteoarthritis than in rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional study from routine care.

The study compares patient-physician discordance in global assessment in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) versus patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) seen in routine care. This is a cross-sectional study conducted at an academic rheumatology center at which all patients are asked to complete a Multi-Dimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ), which includes a patient global assessment (PATGL). Rheumatologists are encouraged to complete a physician questionnaire, which includes a physician global assessment (DOCGL).

A RheuMetric physician checklist to quantitate levels of inflammation, damage and distress on 0-10 visual analogue scales.

A physician global assessment of patient status (DOCGL) was designed initially to quantitate inflammatory activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) clinical trials, in which patients are selected for high levels of activity. However, in patients seen in routine care with various diagnoses, and even in some RA patients selected for clinical trials, DOCGL also may be affected by joint damage and/or patient distress. To clarify DOCGL on a 0-10 visual analogue scale (VAS), 3 additional 0-10 VAS have been developed to record physician estimates of inflammation (DOCINF), damage (DOCDAM), and distress (DOCSTR) (such as fibromyalgia (FM)/depression).

Pain and other self-report scores in patients with osteoarthritis indicate generally similar disease burden to patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objectives: Osteoarthritis (OA) is regarded as a less severe form of arthritis than rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by health professionals and the general public, based largely on laboratory findings of autoantibodies and acute phase reactants. Relatively few studies have reported data from the patient's perspective to compare directly OA versus RA using the same self-report questionnaire measure. We aimed to summarise reports that compare OA versus RA patient pain scores and other indicators of disease burden according to the same self-report questionnaire.

Assessment of pain and other patient symptoms in routine clinical care as quantitative, standardised, "scientific" data.

Pain is the most common basis for visits to a rheumatologist, and reduction of pain is a primary goal of clinical care. Pain is assessed optimally by the patient on a self-report questionnaire. In clinical trials and other clinical research concerning pain and pain relief, detailed questionnaires are generally completed by patients.