Patient Acceptable Symptom State in Self-Report Questionnaires and Composite Clinical Disease Index for Assessing Rheumatoid Arthritis Activity: Identification of Cut-Off Points for Routine Care

Objective. To provide information on the value of Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by the identification of PASS thresholds for patient-reported outcomes (PROs) composite scores. Methods. The characteristics of RA patients with affirmative and negative assignment to PASS were compared. Contributors to physician response were estimated by logistic regression models and PASS thresholds by the 75th percentile and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve methods. Results. 303 RA patients completed the study. All PROs were different between the PASS (+) and PASS (−) groups (p < 0.0001). The thresholds with the 75th percentile approach were 2.0 for the RA Impact of Disease (RAID) score, 2.5 for the PRO-CLinical ARthritis Activity (PRO-CLARA) index, and 1.0 for the Recent-Onset Arthritis Disability (ROAD) questionnaire. The cut-off values for Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) were in the moderate range of disease activity. Assessing the size of the logistic regression coefficients, the strongest predictors of PASS were the disease activity (p = 0.0007) and functional state level (0.006). Conclusion. PASS thresholds were relatively high and many patients in PASS had moderate disease activity states according to CDAI. Factors such as disease activity and physical function may influence a negative PASS.