The responsiveness of generic quality of life instruments in rheumatic diseases. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

To review the available evidence that has used generic instruments alone or in comparison with disease specific instruments. A systematic review was c arried out using the methods recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration. We used MEDLINE and EMBASE searches and we performed a hand search of the abst racts listed under "quality of life" at American College of Rheumatology (A CR) meetings. Selection was limited to randomized controlled trials (RCT) u sing generic instruments in populations older than 18 years with any of the following diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, oste oarthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and ankylosing spondylitis. Langu age was restricted to English papers. Studies using only disease-specific i nstruments were excluded. From 488 articles retrieved, 13 reports of 10 ran domized controlled trials were selected. There were 101 abstracts on qualit y of life in ACR abstract books; 78 abstracts contained data on generic ins truments, and of these, 9 described their use in RCT. Despite a substantial increase in the number of papers and abstracts addressing different aspect s of generic questionnaires, the majority of the papers were descriptive. T he evidence is not yet available to document that any of the generic instru ments pass the requirements of the OMERACT Filter.