Correlation between DAS and PROs in RA. V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
To investiagte whether there is correlation between disease activity and disease impact in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
IRAS ID
195194
Contact name
Natasha Jordan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 4 days
Research summary
We are inviting 60 people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to take part in an exploratory study about how we measure the effects of rheumatoid arthritis and to see if there is any correlation between how active the disease is and how it affects, or impacts, peoples’ everyday lives. In clinical practice we routinely measure disease activity to assess the effectiveness of treatments and to guide management decisions. However, improvement in disease activity may not always be the patient’s main goal and improvement in some aspects of everyday life, such fatigue and feeling well, may be more important. We do not know if improvement in disease activity is enough to also improve health related quality of life from the patients view point. It may be that changes in disease activity are not associated with changes in disease impact and patient specific goals.
Potential participants will be identified from future appointments in nurse led clinics and consenting patients will be asked to see the researcher at this appointment. The Diseases Activity Score 28 (DAS 28), which involves simple clinical examination, is an assessment that is routinely used in clinical practice. The researcher, who is experienced and fully trained to carry out the DAS 28 will complete this assessment. The participants will then complete a patient derived outcome questionnaire called the Rheumatoid Arthritis Impact of Disease (RAID). Correlation statistics will be applied to the data collected. Correlations between the different components of both composite scores and demographic associations will also be analysed.
If there is correlation this will suggest that when a patient’s disease activity improves the disease impact also improves. However, if there is no correlation, in addition to the DAS 28, we may need to use patient derived measures of disease impact, such as the RAID, to guide more patient centred management.REC name
South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SC/0059
Date of REC Opinion
1 Feb 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion