Screening for Anxiety in Patients With Inflammatory Arthritis Using the Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire

Objective. To analyze the Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ) in screening for anxiety in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA), compared to the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as the reference standard. Methods. Patients with a physician diagnosis of RA or PsA were invited to complete the MDHAQ and HADS at their routine rheumatology clinic visit. Sensitivity, specificity, percent agreement, and. statistics were used to evaluate agreement between 2 MDHAQ items for anxiety and HADS subscale for Anxiety (HADS-A) score of >= 8. The first item is a question asked on a 4-point scale (0-3.3), and the second is a yes or no (blank) question asked within a 60-item review of symptoms (ROS) checklist. Results. The study included 183 participants, of whom 126 (68.9%) had RA and 57 (31.1%) had PsA. The mean age was 57.3 years and 66.7% were female. Positive screening for anxiety according to a HADS-A score of >= 8 was seen in 39.3% of patients. Compared to those with a HADS-A score of >= 8, patients with an MDHAQ score of >= 2.2 or a positive on ROS had a sensitivity of 69.9%, specificity of 73.6% and substantial agreement (agreement 80.9%,. 0.59). Conclusion. The MDHAQ provides information similar to the HADS in screening for anxiety in patients with RA and PsA. The use of this single questionnaire, which can also be used to monitor clinical status and to screen for fibromyalgia and depression without requiring multiple questionnaires, may prove a valuable tool in routine clinical practice.