MEASUREMENT OF FUNCTIONAL ABILITY AND HEALTH-STATUS IN THE ARTHRITIC PATIENT

Chronic arthritis may have great impact on the patient but also on his or her family, relatives and friends. The assessment of the consequen ces of chronic arthritis and the effect of therapy not only in terms o f physical, but also psychological and social dimensions deserves more attention. Functional ability and health status can be measured using a questionnaire or 'instrument, high-lighting important aspects not q uantified with more traditional measurements. In this paper, arguments to apply such instruments more frequently are given. Health status in struments can be used not only to assess beneficial but also deleterio us (side-)effects of therapeutic interventions. The properties are sum marize ed of the most frequently used instruments assessing functional ability and health status. Many of these instruments have been evalua ted sufficiently for validity and reliability; their sensitivity to de tect change seems to be satisfactory. Therefore it is advisable to cho ose an internationally accepted, frequently used instrument, reflectin g the area of interest.