COMPARISON OF CLINICAL AND SELF-REPORTED DIAGNOSES FOR PARTICIPANTS ON A COMMUNITY-BASED ARTHRITIS SELF-MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

Objective. With the advent of community-based arthritis education prog rammes, it is important to determine the accuracy of participants' sel f-reported diagnoses. The purpose of this study was to determine the l evel of agreement between general practitioner (GP)-recorded and self- reported diagnoses of participants attending an Arthritis Self-Managem ent Programme (ASMP). Methods. Participants enrolling on the ASMP were asked to (a) identify their type of arthritis via a self-administered postal questionnaire and (b) obtain a written confirmation of their d iagnosis from their GP. The sample (n = 613) comprised mainly women (8 3%) with a mean age of 58.8 yr (S.D. 12.6) and a mean disease duration of 15.4 yr (S.D. 12.5). Results. Participants' self-reported diagnose s were confirmed by GPs in 534 cases [87.1%, 95% confidence interval ( CI): 84.4-89.8%]. Confirmed diagnoses were reported by 86.9% (95% CI: 83.1-90.7%) of those with osteoarthritis (OA) and 96.1% (95% CI: 93.6- 98.6%) of those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The concordance rate f or all other types of arthritis combined was lower at 60.5% (95% CI: 4 9.5-71.5%). There were no significant differences with respect to age, gender, education, physical functioning, duration of disease and numb er of GP visits between those who correctly identified their type of a rthritis and those who did not. Conclusions. This study suggests that the majority of RA and OA participants attending an arthritis educatio n programme can correctly identify their specific type of arthritis.