Can a Multi-Dimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ) and Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data (RAPID) scores be informative in patients with all rheumatic diseases?

A multidimensional health assessment questionnaire (MDHAQ) is useful in standard care of patients with all rheumatic diseases in a busy clinical setting. The MDHAQ was adapted from the classical health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) for feasibility in standard clinical care, with reduction of the number of activities from 20 to 10, visual analog scales (VAS) as 21 circles rather than 10 cm lines, availability of all core data set patient self-report measures and scoring templates on the front side, and a review of systems symptom checklist and review of recent medical history on the reverse side of a single page. Scoring templates are also available for routine assessment of patient index data (RAPID) scores, based on a composite of the three patient reported outcome (PRO) measures from the core data set included on the HAQ and MDHAQ, physical function pain, and patient estimate of global status. Flow sheets illustrating use of the MDHAQ in standard clinical care of patients with various rheumatic diseases, including psoriatic arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, ankylosing spondylitis, gout, scleroderma, vasculitis, fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel disease arthritis, Behcet's syndrome, and familial Mediterranean fever, are presented to illustrate use of this simple questionnaire to add to clinical decisions and document patient courses and outcomes in standard clinical care of patients with all rheumatic diseases.

Key words: Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ), Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data (RAPID), rheumatic diseases