Elsevier

Annals of Epidemiology

Volume 5, Issue 4, July 1995, Pages 297-302
Annals of Epidemiology

Original report
A connective tissue disease screening questionnaire for population studies,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/1047-2797(94)00096-CGet rights and content

Abstract

To develop a technique to screen populations for potential connective tissue disease (CTD), we mailed a 30-item questionnaire to 253 randomly selected patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD), or Sjögren's syndrome and to 340 randomly selected control subjects. The response rate after four mailings was 71% for case subjects and 54% for control subjects. Test-retest reliability for detection of any CTD was 0.82. Sensitivity for specific CTDs was 83 to 96% and specificity was 83 to 93%. The positive predictive value for any CTD (assuming an overall prevalence of 1.3%) was 5.5%; negative predictive value was 99.7%. The CTD Screening Questionnaire has high sensitivity and specificity for screening large populations.

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  • Cited by (0)

    Statement of financial disclosure: Dr. Liang received $2,525 from four legal firms representing Dow Corning or McGhan for consultations between June 16, 1993 and August 26, 1994. The other authors have not received compensation from companies that manufacture breast implants nor from lawyers involved with breast implant litigations.

    ☆☆

    This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants AR36308, CA40356, and AI07306.

    ∗∗

    Dr. Sanchez-Guerrero is supported by a Research Fellowship Award, Fogarty International Center, NIH contract 5F05 TW04573-02.

    Dr. Katz is supported by an Arthritis Foundation Investigator Award.

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