A modification of the Health Assessment Questionnaire for the spondyloarthropathies
Daltroy, L.H.; Larson, M.G.; Roberts, N.W.; Liang, M.H.
Journal of Rheumatology 17(7): 946-950
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0315-162X PMID: 2213762 Document Number: 360660
A functional status measure was developed by adding 5 items to the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ-S), and compared to anthropometric measures of spinal mobility. Forty-four patients with spondylitis were evaluated by the HAQ-S and measures of spine flexibility (finger-to-floor, Smythe test, neck rotation, and chest expansion). Modification of the HAQ raised the mean difficultly score by 29% from 0.38 (SD = 0.49) to 0.49 (SD = 0.51), indicating increased ability to capture functional limitations. Neck rotation correlated most strongly with the HAQ-S score (r = -0.57), which suggests an important role for this measure in clinical management and followup of spondylitis.