Ankylosing Spondylitis Measuring Equipment
& The Bath Indices Index

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Evaluating Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life with the EASi-QoL: a new patient-reported outcome measure for AS

Dr. Kirstie L Haywood
Summary

The EASi-QoL is a new measure of AS-specific quality of life, or patient-reported outcome measure (PROM), which captures outcomes described as important by patients with AS (Haywood et al, 2010; Packham et al, 2011).

Development of the EASi-QoL involved more than 550 patients from across the UK, ensuring that important, patient-derived themes and items were included. The EASi-QoL consists of 20 questions across four health domains:

• Physical Function (6 questions)
• Disease Activity (4 questions)
• Emotional Well-being (5 questions)
• Social Well-being (5 questions)

Summative scores are simply, and quickly, generated for each health domain.

Patient self-completion (paper and pen format at present!) takes approximately 5 minutes.

The initial evaluation involved a further 612 patients from across the UK, supporting a rigorous evaluation of essential measurement and practical properties. Evidence suggests that the EASi-QoL is acceptable to patients with evidence of good content validity. Moreover, there is rigorous evidence in support of the EASi-QoL’s reliability - supporting its application in groups and with individuals, and validity (Haywood et al, 2010). Evidence of responsiveness to change in health following routine care and following anti-TNF therapies suggests that the ESAi-QoL is more responsive than comparator measures such as the BASDAI, BASFI and ASQoL (Packham et al,2011).

There is also initial evidence to support interpretation of score change – the minimal clinical important change in score (Packham et al, 2011).

In summary, the EASi-QoL is a patient-derived and patient-completed AS-specific measure of quality of life which captures clinically important outcomes that matter to patients. Growing evidence supports application of the EASi-QoL in both routine

practice and research settings. The EASi-QoL is free to use – but please don’t change its format and content as this would influence its performance (we are currently seeking copyright).

For further information pertaining to the development, evaluation and application of the EASi-QoL please contact:

Dr Kirstie Haywood

Senior Research Fellow (Patient Reported Outcomes)
Royal College of Nursing Research Institute
School of Health and Social Studies, University of Warwick
(k.l.haywood@warwick.ac.uk).
Tel: 024761 50616

Current publications describing EASi-QoL evaluations:

Haywood KL, Garratt AM, Jordan KP, Healey EL, Packham JC. (2010) Evaluation of Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (EASi-QoL): reliability and validity of a new patient-reported outcome measure. The Journal of Rheumatology. Oct;37(10):2100-
9. Epub 2010 Aug 3.

Packham JC, Jordan KP, Haywood KL, Garratt AM, Healey EL. (2011) Evaluating Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality Of Life (EASi-QoL): Responsiveness of a New Patient Reported Outcome Measure. Rheumatology (Oxford) in press EASI-QoL questionnaire More Info

Download EASI-QoL questionnaire

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