Comparison of clinical and self-reported diagnoses for participants on a community-based arthritis self-management programme

OBJECTIVE: With the advent of community-based arthritis educationprogrammes, it is important to determine the accuracy of participants'self-reported diagnoses. The purpose of this study was to determine thelevel of agreement between general practitioner (GP)-recorded and self-reported diagnoses of participants attending an Arthritis Self- ManagementProgramme (ASMP). METHODS: Participants enrolling on the ASMP were asked to(a) identify their type of arthritis via a self- administered postalquestionnaire and (b) obtain a written confirmation of their diagnosis fromtheir GP. The sample (n = 613) comprised mainly women (83%) with a mean ageof 58.8 yr (S.D. 12.6) and a mean disease duration of 15.4 yr (S.D. 12.5).RESULTS: Participants' self-reported diagnoses were confirmed by GPs in 534cases [87.1%, 95% confidence interval (CI): 84.4 89.8%]. Confirmeddiagnoses were reported by 86.9% (95% CI: 83.1-90.7%) of those withosteoarthritis (OA) and 96.1% (95% CI: 93.6 98.6%) of those with rheumatoidarthritis (RA). The concordance rate for all other types of arthritiscombined was lower at 60.5% (95% CI: 49.5-71.5%). There were no significantdifferences with respect to age, gender, education, physical functioning,duration of disease and number of GP visits between those who correctlyidentified their type of arthritis and those who did not. CONCLUSIONS: Thisstudy suggests that the majority of RA and OA participants attending anarthritis education programme can correctly identify their specific type ofarthritis.