The controversial role of wellbeing assessment in juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Abstract

The use of the parent or patient global evaluation (PGE) of children's wellbeing as an outcome measure in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is controversial. It is widely agreed that integration of patient's and parent's perspective in clinical assessment could facilitate concordance with physician's choices and improve adherence to treatment.1 However, the PGE might be an imperfect indicator of disease activity in patients with JIA because it can be affected by persistent pain symptoms independent of joint inflammation and also by factors external to the disease such as mood, anxiety, pain coping, and family functioning.