Assessing health status after inpatient rehabilitation in rheumatoid arthritis

Evaluation of different therapy programmes, e.g. inpatient rehabilitation, in rheumatoid arthritis requires valid, reliable and sensitive instruments describing patient health status. Traditional measurements such as ESR, joint count or radiographic findings do not suffice for this purpose, particularly because they neglect the psychosocial dimensions of impairment. We report upon a questionnaire, MOPO scales, a German adaptation of the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales. We found the questionnaire to be valid, reliable and sensitive to change. The main application of MOPO scales is in multidimensional measurement of patient health status and in detection and documentation of therapeutically induced change.