Are Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Their Parents Reliable Reporters of Joint Involvement?
Background: Quantitative joint counts are key outcome measures in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). However, assessment of the whole joints in all patients is time consuming and may be difficult in a busy clinical setting. Self or proxy-report of joint involvement, may help the physician to obtain information on the severity and distribution of arthritis. Purpose: To investigate the reliability of self or proxy-report of joint involvement by children with JIA and their parents. Methods: 220 children with JIA and 465 parents of children with JIA were asked to score the swelling or pain in 9 joints or joint groups. Afterward, a paediatric rheumatologist performed a formal joint assessment. Agreement between physician, parent, and child was assessed with Cohen’s kappa. Results : Table shows the k values for agreement in joint assessment between physicians, parents and children. Joint k MD-parent k MD-child Shoulder 0.15 0.15 Elbow 0.51 0.38 Wrist 0.41 0.47 Hand joints 0.5
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