Level of agreement between parents and children in rating dysfunction in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile spondyloarthritides.

Objective: To determine the level of agreement between parents and children in rating dysfunction in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and juvenile spondyloarthritides.

Methods: We conducted separate interviews (parents and patients) of children > or = 9 years of age with JRA and spondyloarthritis attending our clinic. A questionnaire consisting of 100 probes (57 physical activities, 26 psychosocial issues and 17 general symptoms) was used. Probes were scored by respondents on a 6-point scale for their frequency of occurrence (all probes) and importance to the patient (physical activities, only), giving a total of 157 scores. Forty patients were included. Level of agreement between patients and parents was determined by weighted kappa (kappa).

Results: Mean kappa for all scores was 0.60; gross motor 0.51, fine motor 0.64, psychosocial 0.56 and general symptoms 0.64. One hundred and forty scores (89%) showed at least moderate agreement.

Conclusions: Our data confirm that there is good parent-child agreement on the level of dysfunction of children > or = 9 years of age with JRA and spondyloarthritis. This level of agreement extends over a wide range of general symptoms and includes physical and psychosocial function. Thus both the parent and the child are reliable informants on the impact of chronic arthritis on the quality of life of affected children and either can be used for this type of assessment.