ABSTRACT
Reliability and validity of health assessment questioner have been shown for rheumatoid arthritis but not osteoarthritis in Iranian patients. Having an instrument for measuring of pain and disability is needed for evaluation of patients and disease course in studies. So this study was designed for evaluating of validity and reliability of Persian HAQ in osteoarthritis. From 177 patients with hand and/or knee osteoarthritis, 100 patients were chosen according HADS score equal or less than 7. Short Form of Health Survey [SF-36], pain and disability according Visual analogue scale [VAS] and Persian version of Health assessment questioner [HAQ] were completed. HAQ was re-evaluated after one week. Correlation between Persian HAQ, SF 36 and VAS and test-retest reliability were evaluated by Spearman correlation coefficient and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Correlation coefficient for HAQ 1 and VAS for pain was [r=0.75, p=0.001] and for SF 36 was [r=0.70, p=0.001]. Correlation coefficient for HAQ 1 and HAQ 2 was 0.93 for hand OA, 0.96 for knee OA and 0.94 for all patients [r= 0.92, p=0.001]. HAQ had a good internal consistency in osteoarthritis [Cronbach's alpha coefficient=0.87]. Criterion and structure validity used in study. This study has shown good validity reliability for persian HAQ in Iranian patients with osteoarthritis