Comprehensibility, reliability, validity and responsiveness of the Thai version of the Health Assessment Questionnaire in Thai patients with rheumatoid arthritis

IntroductionThe Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) is a commonly used instrument to assess functional status of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Translations and adaptations of the HAQ-DI have been carried out for advantage with RA patients in assorted countries. The stop of this glance at was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Thai version of the HAQ-DI (Thai HAQ) in Thai patients with RA. Methods: Comprehensibility of the Thai HAQ was assessed by 126 patients with RA from 6 medical centres in Thailand. Another troop of 115 patients with active RA was enrolled to test the reliability (internal reliability and 1-week test-retest reliability), construct validity (correlations with other measures of RA disease activity), floor and ceiling effects, and sensitivity to moderate of the Thai HAQ at 3 months of treatment with disease modifying antirheumatic drugs. Results: More than 98% of the patients regarded the Thai HAQ as comprehensible. The internal consistency of the Thai HAQ was passable with the overall Cronbach's alpha of 0.91. The test-retest reliability of the Thai HAQ was acceptable with the intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.89. Change correlations between the Thai HAQ and other outcomes of RA disease vitality were observed, except ESR, with the Spearman correlation coefficients ranged from 0.42 to 0.57. The responsiveness of the Thai HAQ was exchange with the standardized response stingy of 0.75 (95% confidence space 0.56 to 0.94). Conclusions: The Thai HAQ is comprehensible, reliable, valid and touchy to change in the check of functional status of Thai patients with RA. The Thai HAQ is an imperative baggage to measure treatment effects and method of disability in RA patients and should be applied in both clinical trials and routine clinical care settings.

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