{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.0252167060677699, 'fraction_numerical': 0.009456264775413711, 'mean_word_length': 5.2254901960784315, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Course of patient-reported health outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis: comparison of longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches.

OBJECTIVE
To describe health outcomes reported by patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), i.e., pain, disability and health-related quality of life, as a function of disease duration in a longitudinal approach, and to compare the course of patient-reported health outcomes by a longitudinal versus a cross-sectional approach.


METHODS
Data were collected with 4 series of questionnaires between 1997 and 2002 among patients with RA (maximum number = 882) of varying disease duration. The course of patient-reported health outcomes as a function of disease duration was evaluated using both longitudinal data and cross-sectional data of the first series.


RESULTS
The course of RA shows a different pattern for various health outcomes. We observed similar trends in health outcomes in this large patient sample using the longitudinal and the cross-sectional approach.


CONCLUSION
Although longterm consequences of RA are preferably assessed in longer duration followup studies, cross-sectional studies, including patients with a broad range of disease durations, seem to provide fairly reliable estimates of the course of health outcomes.