Abstract

Background: Hand osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent rheumatic disease, yet access to recommended treatments is often poor for those affected. To enhance care quality, sets of quality indicators (QIs) grounded in current treatment guidelines are crucial. They serve as tools to guide clinical practice and evaluate care quality. While validated QI sets exist for OA, i.e., OA-QI v.2., none specifically tailor hand OA. This gap underlines the need for developing hand OA-specific QIs. Objectives: We aimed to adapt the OsteoArthritis Quality Indicator (OA-QI) v.2 questionnaire, making it suitable for assessing the patient-reported quality of hand OA care. Methods: The adaptation began with the existing OA-QI set, augmented by a literature review to identify potential QIs for hand OA, following the Rand/UCLA Appropriateness Method. A European multidisciplinary expert panel, including researchers, clinicians, and patient research partners, engaged in meetings and anonymous ratings to reach a consensus. They evaluated each QI on importance, validity, usefulness, and feasibility using a 9-point Likert scale. Cognitive debriefing interviews with hand OA patients are ongoing to ensure clarity of the questionnaire items. This study was funded by a EULAR health professional research grant Results: An initial search yielded 1670 articles, with none relevant for our QI set, necessitating 4 voting rounds to finalise 16 QI items (Table 1). These items align with international hand OA care standards and are presented in English and Norwegian, targeting users in the UK and Norway. Preliminary feedback from cognitive interviews suggests minor amendments for clarity Conclusion: We successfully adapted the OA-QI v.2 into a 16-item QI set, reflecting the international care standards for hand OA. This tool can quantify the care quality for hand OA. Future studies will evaluate the psychometric properties of the new QI set. REFERENCES: NIL. Acknowledgements: NIL. Disclosure of Interests: None declared.