J Korean Med Sci.  2003 Apr;18(2):171-178. 10.3346/jkms.2003.18.2.171.

A Korean Rheumatic Diseases Screening Questionnaire

• Lee HS
• Oh KT
• Kim TH
• Jung SS
• Yoo DH
• Bae SC

• KMID: 2157618
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2003.18.2.171

Abstract

The aim of our study was to develop a Korean rheumatic diseases-screening questionnaire. The questionnaire was constructed based on American College of Rheumatology criteria for rheumatic diseases and a connective tissue diseases screening questionnaire. Two groups of patients were selected and completed the questionnaire: (i) those with osteoarthritis (n=46), rheumatoid arthritis (n=52), systemic lupus erythematosus (n=50), scleroderma (n=8), polymyositis or dermatomyositis (n=7), Sjogren's disease (n=4), and mixed connective-tissue disease (n=9) as case subjects; and (ii) those with fibromyalgia (n=8) and general disease without evidence of any rheumatic disease (n=72) as controls. Laboratory results were analyzed for correlation with actual data using kappa (kappa) statistics. Test-retest reliability was performed in 12 patients, and showed strong agreement between the first and second interviews (kappa=0.91). The sensitivity of the questionnaire ranged from 77.8 to 100%, and specificity ranged from 68.8 to 95.0%. Negative predictive values were very high in the general population, from 98.4 to 99.99%. The kappa statistic for agreement between laboratory items was 0.22-0.56, except for rheumatoid factor, antinuclear antibody test, and muscle enzyme level. We have developed a simple and sensitive Korean rheumatic diseases-screening questionnaire for the epidemiologic study of rheumatic diseases in Korea.

Keyword

Rheumatic Diseases; Arthritis; Questionnaires; Sensitivity and Specificity; Epidemiology; Korea

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged
Female
Human
Korea/epidemiology
Male
Mass Screening*
Middle Aged
Predictive Value of Tests
Questionnaires*
Reproducibility of Results
Rheumatic Diseases/diagnosis
Rheumatic Diseases/epidemiology*
Rheumatic Diseases/physiopathology