The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ)

TLDR: The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), introduced in 1980, is among the first PRO instruments designed to represent a model of patient-oriented outcome assessment, and has been significantly correlated with other PRO instruments.

Abstract: P a t i e n t - re p o rted outcomes (PROs) provide intrinsic knowledge about a pa tient’s health, functional status, symptoms, treatment pre f e rences, satisfac tion, and quality of life. They have be come an established approach for assessing health outcomes. The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), introduced in 1980, is among the first PRO i n s t ruments designed to re p resent a mo del of patient-oriented outcome assessment. The HAQ is based on five patientc e n t e red dimensions: disability, pain, medication effects, costs of care, and m o rtality. It has been validated by mail, in the office, by telephone, and by comparison with paraprofessional and physician judgments as a reliable instru ment, and has been significantly corre lated with other PRO instruments. Typi c a l l y, one of two HAQ versions is used: the Full HAQ, which assesses all five dimensions, and the Short or 2-page H A Q , which contains only the HAQ disability index (HAQ-DI) and the HAQ’ s patient global and pain visual analog scales (VAS). The HAQ-DI and the global and pain VAS (i.e., the short HAQ) have essentially retained their original content since their inception, while the Full HAQ undergoes periodic revision to address issues of contemporary scientific interest. The HAQ-DI has been translated or culturally adapted into m o re than 60 different languages or dialects and has become part of the National Institutes of Health “Roadmap” Project, the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS).