ObjectiveTo compare a 0-10 physician subglobal estimates of inflammatory activity (DOCINF) on a RheuMetric checklist to formal swollen joint counts (SJC) and other disease activity score 28 (DAS28) and clinical disease activity index (CDAI) measures in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), recognizing that index scores and physician global assessment (DOCGL) may be elevated by joint damage and patient distress and that formal joint counts are not recorded at most routine care visits. MethodsA cross-sectional study at a routine care visit included a RheuMetric checklist completed by a rheumatologist, with four 0-10 visual numeric scales (VNS) for DOCGL, and three sub-global estimates for inflammatory activity (DOCINF), joint damage (DOCDAM), and patient distress (DOCDIS), e.g., anxiety, depression, and/or fibromyalgia, etc. Variation in SJC according to other individual measures in the DAS28 and CDAI and the indices was analyzed using Spearman correlation coefficients and regressions with and without DOCINF as an independent variable. ResultsIn 173 patients with long disease duration, regressions which included individual DAS28 or CDAI measures and added DOCINF as an independent variable explained 46% of variation in SJC, compared to 23% if DOCINF was not included. DOCINF was more explanatory of SJC than even the DAS28 or CDAI indices themselves, although SJC is a component of these indices. ConclusionIn routine care RA patients with long disease duration, DOCINF depicts SJC as effectively as RA indices which require 90-100 seconds to record, and may provide a feasible, informative quantitative clinical measure without recording formal joint counts.