Categorisation of disease severity states in fibromyalgia: a first step to support decision-making in health care policy.

Objectives: To establish the cut-off points for disease severity states of two self-administered questionnaires (the revised version of the Fibromyalgia-Impact Questionnaire [FIQR] and the Fibromyalgia Assessment Status [FAS]) designed for the evaluation of multidimensional aspects of fibromyalgia (FM).

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, consecutive FM patients completed both FIQR and FAS. The external criterion for grading disease severity was the item one of the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36).

AHRQ prevention quality indicators to assess the quality of primary care of local providers: a pilot study from Italy.

Background: Outside the USA, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) prevention quality indicators (PQIs) have been used to compare the quality of primary care services only at a national or regional level. However, in several national health systems, primary care is not directly managed by the regions but is in charge of smaller territorial entities. We evaluated whether PQIs might be used to compare the performance of local providers such as Italian local health authorities (LHAs) and health districts.