DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE KNOWLEDGE IN INDIVIDUALS WITHRHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS - THE ACREU RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONNAIRE

Objective. Education is an important component of community based reha bilitation programs for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This st udy describes the development of a questionnaire to measure knowledge in this context. Methods. Items were generated using focus group metho dology and covered the domains of prognosis, pain management, medicati ons, joint protection, energy conservation, exercise, and coping strat egies. Results. After extensive pretesting, the questionnaire was admi nistered to 252 people with RA. The final 31 item questionnaire had ac ceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: 0.76, n=185), test-re test reliability (r=0.91, p less than or equal to 0.001), content and construct validity. Sensitivity to change was confirmed in the context of a 6 week home based physiotherapy educational intervention. Conclu sion. The RA knowledge questionnaire is a reliable, valid, and sensiti ve instrument for measuring the effect of a RA educational interventio n.