Abstract

Objective

To review the use of health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) instruments as patient-reported outcome in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in studies that have been published in Chinese-speaking populations.

Methods

Overlapping searching strategy was used using four publication databases: PubMed and EMBASE for English publications and Wanfang and CNKI for Chinese publications. Entries published between January 1, 1990, and July 31, 2014, were retrieved and then reviewed independently by two researchers. The identified studies were summarized according to information source, publishing year, study location, and study type. The validation studies were examined closely in terms of their sample sizes and psychometric properties.

Results

There were 99 studies from the databases selected for review. Among the studies reviewed, most studies were conducted in Mainland China. There was a clear overall increasing trend in the number of studies in recent years. Generic instruments were more frequently used by researchers outside China. Another observation was that most instruments were used without previous validation either in any Chinese-speaking population with RA or in the specific country that it was used.

Conclusions

The importance of patient-reported quality of life as an outcome indicator in patients with RA is more and more realized in Chinese-speaking regions during the past two decades. To facilitate the use of HRQOL for better management of patients, and improve the quality of research, there is a strong need of validating the HRQOL instruments in more locations with a larger population, more comprehensive validity, and potential cross-cultural validation in future.