Osteoarthritis impact more underestimated than rheumatoid arthritis, says study

A new study presented recently at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2016), suggests that people with osteoarthritis are more likely to have the impact of their condition underestimated by rheumatologists than people with rheumatoid arthritis.

“This discordance between physician and patient perception of disease severity is important because of the negative impact it can have on shared decisions concerning the best choice of therapy,” says lead author Dr Isabel Castrejón from the Rush University Medical Centre, Chicago, US. “This in turn is likely to interfere with treatment compliance and future outcomes,” Dr Castrejón explains.

Previous studies have shown that doctors and their patients with various rheumatic conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, tend to rate the impact of the disease very differently. Although recent evidence suggests similar disease burdens in both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, the former is still generally regarded as being less severe than the latter.

In this new study, patient perception of disease severity was greater than doctor assessment (by two Units or more) in one third of 243 osteoarthritis patients and one fifth of 216 rheumatoid arthritis patients. The assessments of severity were equivalent in just over one half of osteoarthritis and two thirds of rheumatoid arthritis patients. Physician evaluation of severity was greater than patient assessment (by two Units or more) in 10% of osteoarthritis and 15% of rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Physician and patient evaluation of disease severity are both based on a 0-10 visual analogue scale; patient assessment included completion of a multidimensional health assessment questionnaire, with scores for physical function, pain and fatigue, a symptom checklist, and a self-reported joint count.

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