Journal
SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF CARING SCIENCES
Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages 137-141Publisher
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00067.x
Keywords
rheumatoid arthritis (RA); pain; visual analogue scale (VAS); affect; measurement
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Funding
- NIAMS NIH HHS [AR36308] Funding Source: Medline
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Visual analogue scales (VAS) of depression and anxiety were compared with standard full-length measures of these variables and with VAS of pain (VAS Pain). This was a good way to develop a practical methodology for the routine assessment of pain and affect in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. The reliability of VAS Pain was studied by test-retest. The validity of VAS Pain in our sample was proved by correlations with the results of other tests. We also investigated the relationship between VAS Pain and C-reactive protein (CRP). In 145 female RA patients, VAS of depression and anxiety were significantly correlated with full-length measures of these variables, and accounted for the majority of the explained variance in VAS Pain, while the full-length standard measures contributed little more. In conclusion, VAS measurements of pain and affect were comprehensible, easily filled-out, and reliable in a sample of Japanese women with RA, and could capture some aspect of affective distress unique to RA patients.
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