Introduction:

The overall perceived health (OPH) is part of the composite tools used to determine the activity of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). It is usually measured using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Difficulties in applying the VAS have been observed in clinical practice and in the literature. This study was carried out after considering the need to define the performance of the different scales used to evaluate OPH, and determine their ease of use, as well as to propose a new scale.

Methods:

The study based on the outcome of patients, subjects diagnosed with RA, to whom 4 types of scales were applied to evaluate OPH: Scale 1 (VAS), Scale 2 (face scale), a proposal of a visual scale in two versions: Scale 3 (composite visual scale in horizontal orientation), and Scale 4, similar to 3 in vertical orientation.

Results:

Of the 198 patients included, 169 (85.3%) were women, and 29 (14.6%) were men. The mean age was 54.2 years, and 59.6% of the patients did not understand the Scale 1. The majority of the patients understood the Scales 2,3, and 4. Approximately 80% of the patients preferred the Scales 2 (43.4%) and 3 (36.3%) (P< .00), but no clinical variable predicted the selection of the scale. A good correlation and an acceptable reproducibility were observed for scales 2, 3, and 4.

Conclusions:

Although the majority of patients did not understand the VAS, the majority of our patients understood and preferred the proposed scales that could be useful in the clinical practice of RA patients.

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