After clinician and patient interviews, concepts were further refined into four domains and 17 concepts; test versions of the PACT-Q were then created simultaneously in three languages, each containing 27 items grouped into four domains: "Treatment Expectations" (7 items), "Convenience" (11 items), "Burden of Disease and Treatment" (2 items) and "Anticoagulant Treatment Satisfaction" (7 items).
The BASDAI contains six items representative of disease activity in AS [ 23].
The differences in effects of all items of cardiovascular disease on 'survival in years' and SST, could be explained by the age correction enclosed in the SST – method.
Health Related Quality of Life will be measured using the Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS4) [ 58], a 4-item measure of disease specific quality of life.
The BASDAI is a six-item measure of disease activity and includes questions on fatigue, spinal pain, peripheral arthritis, enthesitis (i.e., inflammation at the attachment of ligaments or tendons to bone), and morning stiffness [ 34].
Thus, the results of Kołtowska-Häggström are in line with the results found here, and this suggests that, at least in the relationship between the QoL-AGHDA and the EQ-5Dindex, a saturated model based on the most important SES variables (age and sex) and all items of the disease-specific instrument seems to be the most favourable model.
Initial exploration yielded 33 (out of 82) relevant items describing history of disease, muscle, cardiac, respiratory and cognitive functions, and genetics (Table 1).
The WSAS is a short five-item measure of disease-specific functional impairment in the domains of work, home duties, social leisure, private leisure, and close relationships.
Supporting this possibility was the lack of any significant association (chi-squared test) between the heart/lung item of the disease activity index and FVC (<80%), DLCO (<80%) or sPAH (>35 mm Hg) (data not shown).
According to Mapes et al., [ 19], items of the kidney disease targeted scale are also summarized into kidney disease composite summary (KDCS) score on a100 point scale.
