J Rheumatol
-
To compare the levels of disability and disease activity in African-Americans and Caucasians with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in an academic medical center practice, and to determine whether the differences are independently associated with ethnicity. ⋯ HAQ disability and RA disease activity were higher in African-Americans than Caucasians in this sample from an academic medical center practice. However, ethnicity was not independently associated with these outcomes when socioeconomic and psychological factors were taken into account. Improvement in self-efficacy has the potential to improve outcome in African-Americans with RA.
-
Comment Letter Case Reports
Successful treatment of rheumatoid vasculitis-associated foot-drop with infliximab.
-
A willingness-to-pay (WTP) survey measures the value of a given intervention in money terms. We examined the WTP of Canadian patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for a hypothetical cure for RA under private and public scenarios. The validity of the survey was explored by studying the association between WTP and variables thought to be associated with WTP and randomly-varied variables of the survey materials. ⋯ The WTP survey was well understood and accepted by the patients with RA. Although measures of RA-specific health status (e.g., Health Assessment Questionnaire) were not found to be associated with WTP, many variables thought to be associated with WTP were found to be related in the expected directions. Since WTP for the private program was higher than that for the public program, our study design did not fully capture altruistic valuations of RA patients. Thus, our estimates represent a lower bound on patients' WTP for an RA cure.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Patient preference in a crossover clinical trial of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip: face validity of self-report questionnaire ratings.
To analyze correlational validity of self-report responses regarding patient preference between 2 drugs at the conclusion of a crossover double-blind clinical trial in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee or hip. ⋯ Significant correlational validity is documented for patient self-report of preferences between 2 drugs compared to independent measures within each treatment period in this crossover clinical trial in patients with OA of the knee or hip.