Rheumatology

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Validation of a manual ability questionnaire in patients with systemic sclerosis
Arthritis Care and Research , 05/12/09

Vanthuyne M et al. – Study demonstrates that the systemic sclerosis (SSc)-adapted ABILHAND questionnaire is a reliable, valid, reproducible, linear, and unidimensional measure to assess and followup on the manual ability of patients with SSc; therefore, it could become a useful additional tool in clinical trials to assess treatment efficacy.

• Aim was to adapt and validate a manual ability questionnaire, the ABILHAND, in pts with SSc
• Its original version which includes 81 manual daily activities, was presented to 156 pts with SSc
• Pts provided their perceived difficulty in performing each manual activity as impossible, difficult, or easy
• Pts were reassessed 1 month later to test the reproducibility
• Concomitantly, they were clinically evaluated for their disease activity/severity
• Their functional ability was tested with the HAQ

• 26 selected items defined a unidimensional and linear measure of manual ability showed a continuous progression in their difficulty
• The item difficulty hierarchy was invariant across 12 patient-related factors
• The manual ability score was reproducible over time
• Manual ability was poorer in SSc pts with more severe disease, and was negatively correlated with the HAQ score

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