A.A. Tsepkova, T.G. Shemerovskaya, A.V. Kishtovich, D.A. Fedorenko

Validation of the Russian verson of AIMS2-SF for quality of life assessment in rheumatoid arthritis patients

The aim of this study was to develop a Russian version of the AIMS2-SF for quality of life (QoL) assessment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and to compare its sensitivity with generic SF-36 questionnaire.
133 RA patients were enrolled into the study. Cultural and linguistic adaptation of the Russian version of AIMS2-SF has been performed in accordance with proposed guidelines. Validation included the evaluation of reliability, validity and sensitivity to change. The Cronbach alpha internal consistence reliability was from 0.50 in social interaction scale to 0.81 in physical function scale. Test-retest reliability was acceptable for four of five scales.
Factor analysis extracted 3 components: "Physical-symptoms" component, "Psychological-social" component and "Role functioning" (components distribution explaned by conceptual structure of the questionnaire). We assessed the "known-group" validity and revealed that QoL parameters depend on age, gender, functional class, disease activity and presence of rheumatoid factor in the blood. Item-item correlations within each AIMS2-SF scale and item-scale correlations were tested by Spearmens' method. Statistically significant item-item correlations were found between most of items within each scale.
We revealed that Spearman correlation coefficients between items and their scales were 0.4 - 0.8 (p<0.01); items were more highly associated with their scale than with others. Statistically significant correlations were revealed between AIMS2-SF scales and "external criteria", such as pain and fatigue assessments, duration of morning stiffness, laboratory tests (ESR, C-reactive protein) and SF-36 generic scales. The results of sensitivity assessment showed that AIMS2-SF scales dynamics changed in accordance with changes in self-reported disease activity estimated by verbal rating scale. Comparison of sensitivity of AIMS2-SF and SF-36 scales showed that Russian version of AIMS2-SF is a sensitive instrument similarly to generic SF-36.
Thus, Russian version of AIMS2-SF was developed; it is a reliable, valid and sensitive instrument for QoL assessment in RA patients. Russian AIMS2-SF is an appropriate instrument for assessment of patients QoL and treatment effectiveness along with traditional clinical parameters.