Benchmarking: the five year outcome of rheumatoid arthritis assessed usinga pain score, the Health Assessment Questionnaire, and the Short Form-36 (SF-36) in a community and a clinic based sample

Background-Treatment, and therefore outcome, of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) w ill improve in the next few years. However, improvement in outcome can only be judged against the probability of certain outcomes with current convent ional treatment. Aim-To document the five year outcome of RA in the late 1990s. Setting Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR). Design-Longitudinal observational cohort study. Methods-318 patients with recent onset inflammatory polyarthritis recruited by NOAR in 1990-91 completed five years of follow up. Four groups were ass essed: the whole cohort, all those referred to hospital, those who satisfie d criteria for RA at baseline, and those referred to hospital who satisfied criteria for RA at baseline. Outcome was assessed with a visual analogue s cale for pain, the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), and the Short For m-36 (SF-36). Results-Of the RA hospital attenders, 50% had a visual analogue scale pain score of 5 cm or less and an HAQ score of 1.125 or less. SF-36 scores were reduced in all domains. Results are presented as cumulative percentages. Conclusions-These results can be used for comparison and to set targets for improvement.