A patient-administered questionnaire for arthritis assessment.

A patient-administered arthritis record system has been in use for 4 years. Thirty patients with various chronic arthritic conditions were studied to compare patient responses on the questionnaire to those obtained at the physician interview. Comparisons were also made between the "review of symptoms" and the actual physical findings documented in the medical record. The self-administered inventory of functional activities is a reliable and useful way to document specific activity achieved by a patient. Further, the questionnaires also aid in the evaluation of any therapeutic intervention and give a patient-perceived measurement of the clinical outcome in terms of quality of life. As a patient self-administered record, it allows for a major saving of physician time while acquiring accurate, complicated, but important, repetitive, time-oriented information. This system includes the American Rheumatism Association's Uniform Data Base for Rheumatic Diseases. An important set of questions has been added which improves functional assessment that is necessary to evaluate the success of surgical therapy.