No Clear Winner Among PsA Questionnaires

The performance of 3 patient questionnaires intended to identify patients with undiagnosed psoriatic arthritis (PsA) among those with psoriasis showed minimal differences between the screening tools, researchers reported.

This primary care psoriasis surveillance study compared the Psoriasis Epidemiology Screening Tool (PEST), CONTEST, and CONTESTjt questionnaires to assess their sensitivity and specificity for PsA. Of 791 participants who attended the screening visit, 165 participants showed signs and symptoms indicative of inflammatory arthritis; 150 were then referred for assessment and 48 were diagnosed with PsA.

“The results for each questionnaire were as follows: PEST: sensitivity 0.625 (95% CI 0.482, 0.749), specificity 0.757 (0.724, 0.787); CONTEST: sensitivity 0.604 (0.461, 0.731), specificity 0.768 (0.736, 0.798); and CONTESTjt: sensitivity 0.542 (0.401, 0.676), specificity 0.834 (0.805, 0.859),” the authors wrote in Oxford Rheumatology. “CONTESTjt demonstrated marginally superior specificity to PEST, though the area under the ROC curve was similar for all three instruments.”

Because these tools showed minimal differences, the investigators noted, “The choice of which instrument to choose will depend on other factors, such as simplicity and low patient burden.”

Reference:

Helliwell PS, Coates LC, Ransom M, et al. The comparative performance of three screening questionnaires for psoriatic arthritis in a primary care surveillance study. Rheumatology. 2024; 63(4); 991–998.