Is the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales 2 a good tool to assess quality of life in Slovak patients with rheumatoid arthritis?

Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the measurement properties of the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales 2 (AIMS2) in Slovak patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Background: RA impacts all aspects of life quality (QoL). Many instruments for QoL in RA patients frequently assess only biological aspects. The AIMS2 instrument covers physical, emotional and social QoL and it is widely and successfully used as an indicator of the outcomes of care for arthritis patients, but not in Slovak RA patients. Methods: After translation 178 patients with RA were asked to complete the AIMS2, Visual Analogue Scale for pain VAS, Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index HAQ-DI, Beck Anxiety Inventory BAI and Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale SOS to analyse the validity of the Slovak-AIMS2. Pearson correlations, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test, and principal component analysis were used to test validity of AIMS2. The reliability was assessed by internal consistency, as estimated by Cronbach's alpha coefficients, and using the test-retest procedure. Results: The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for AIMS2 scales ranged from 0.78 to 0.94, the test-retest reliability was significant (p<0.05), ranging from 0.61 to 0.99. The correlations between most of the Slovak-AIMS2 scales and HAQ-DI, VAS, BAI and SDS were statistically significant (p<0.05). The principal component analysis identified three factor models explaining 66.82 % of the variance. Conclusions: The results showed that Slovak-AIMS2 is culturally appropriate, valid and reliable for measuring the health status in adult RA patients (Tab. 6, Ref. 20). Full Text in PDF www.elis.sk.