The  Childhood Health Assessment Question naire ( C-HAQ )  was the most extensively studied instrument and had high reliability , but only moderate correlations with other indices of disease activity and poor responsiveness to change in disease status .
The physician global assessment of disease activity ( PGA ) and articular indices had the strongest association with disease activity and were the most responsive to change .
Measures of psychosocial function and quality of life were moderately associated with measures of disease activity , but were less responsive to changes in disease status .
In children with JIA , no single instrument was superior in reliability or validity or in describing the impact of JIA .
Although the C-HAQ has been extensively evaluated , the PGA and articular indices appear to have the highest responsiveness to change and , therefore , the highest potential for detecting important differences in treatment response
OBJECTIVE To review the performance characteristics of the instruments most commonly used to measure clinical outcomes in juvenile idiopathic arthritis ( JIA ) , including global assessment s , articular indices , functional/disability assessment s , and quality of life measures .
METHODS As part of an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality comparative effectiveness review of antirheumatic drugs , we explored the characteristics of commonly used outcome measures for JIA .
Measuring health status in early juvenile idiopathic arthritis: determinants and responsiveness of the child health questionnaire.
OBJECTIVE To assess the determinants and responsiveness of the Norwegian version of the Child Health Question naire ( CHQ ) in patients with early juvenile idiopathic arthritis ( JIA ) and to compare health status in patients and controls . METHODS A total of 116 children ( median age 8.4 yrs ) with JIA and < 2.5 years of disease duration ( median 11.0 mo ) were examined by a pediatric rheumatologist and reassessed after a median of 10.0 months . Physical and psychosocial health were assessed by means of the CHQ , which provides summary scores for physical and psychosocial health , the Childhood Health Assessment Question naire ( CHAQ ) , and the Child Behavior Checklist ( CBCL , n = 32 ) . Matched controls ( n = 116 ) , r and omly selected from the general population , completed the CHQ at baseline . RESULTS The patients with JIA had poorer physical health and slightly impaired psychosocial health compared with the controls [ 41.2 + /- 13.6 vs 55.2 + /- 7.3 ( p < 0.001 ) and 51.0 + /- 7.5 vs 54.1 + /- 5.7 ( p = 0.002 ) , respectively ] . The most important determinants of the CHQ physical summary score were the child 's pain , morning stiffness , the CHAQ disability index , erythrocyte sedimentation rate ( ESR ) , overall well-being , and physician 's global assessment of disease activity . The psychosocial summary score correlated with the CBCL level of internalizing , externalizing , and total behavior problems . The st and ardized response mean for the physical summary score was large ( 0.96 ) for those who improved , and moderate ( -0.60 ) for those who became worse . CONCLUSION The CHQ discriminated between patients with early JIA and controls . The most important determinants of the CHQ physical summary score were the child 's pain , morning stiffness , CHAQ , ESR , overall well-being , and physician 's global assessment of disease activity . The CHQ was sensitive to clinical changes in children with JIA
The  Childhood Health Assessment Question naire ( C-HAQ )  was the most extensively studied instrument and had high reliability , but only moderate correlations with other indices of disease activity and poor responsiveness to change in disease status .
The physician global assessment of disease activity ( PGA ) and articular indices had the strongest association with disease activity and were the most responsive to change .
Measures of psychosocial function and quality of life were moderately associated with measures of disease activity , but were less responsive to changes in disease status .
In children with JIA , no single instrument was superior in reliability or validity or in describing the impact of JIA .
Although the C-HAQ has been extensively evaluated , the PGA and articular indices appear to have the highest responsiveness to change and , therefore , the highest potential for detecting important differences in treatment response
OBJECTIVE To review the performance characteristics of the instruments most commonly used to measure clinical outcomes in juvenile idiopathic arthritis ( JIA ) , including global assessment s , articular indices , functional/disability assessment s , and quality of life measures .
METHODS As part of an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality comparative effectiveness review of antirheumatic drugs , we explored the characteristics of commonly used outcome measures for JIA .