The MDHAQ/RAPID3 is a simple assessment tool that consists of two pages and asks patients to rate items such as their physical function in activities of daily living and levels of pain in the past week. It also asks about levels of anxiety, depression, and quality of sleep, and it includes a self-reported joint count and a patient global assessment. Scores on RAPID3 range from 0 to 30, and comprise three 0-10 scores for physical function, pain, and patient global assessment subscales in which higher scores indicate greater disease burden.
“Using this tool, we’ve been able to obtain data on patients with OA and RA for at least 30 years,” Dr. Pincus said.
One of the issues with comparing the burden of the two diseases, he noted, is that there are few places that have used the same assessment tool.
Dr. Pincus and his associates at Rush University have also shown that the disease burden in OA remains high 6 months after first visit, while greater improvement is seen in RA over this period (Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2018;26[1]:S260. Abstract 491).