| Name of the Instrument/Tool | Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale (AIMS) |
| First Description |
Robert F Meenan, Paul M Gertman, John H. Mason. Measuring health status in arthritis, the arthritis impact measurement scale. Arthritis Rheum. 1980;23:146-52. |
| Year | 1980 |
| Domains | |
| Concept of constructs | Anxiety and depression, Social Function, Pain, Physical function, Health related quality of life |
| Population/Disease | Disease specific |
| Originally developed for | Osteoarthritis (OA), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) |
| Other rheumatic diseases where can be applied (only if validated) |
Fibromyalgia (FM), Plaque psoriasis, Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) |
| Additional population with no rheumatic diseases |
No |
| Language: Originally published in | English |
| Available in Language | French, Dutch, Turkish, Swedish, Portuguese, Italian, English, Spanish, Norwegian |
| REFERENCE IDENTIFICATION | |
| Author/s | Meenan RF, Gertman PM, Mason JH |
| Title | Measuring health status in Arthritis: the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales |
| Journal | Arthritis Rheumatism |
| Year | 1980 |
| Vol | 23 |
| Num | --- |
| Pages | 146-152 |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Other references of interest | |
| Link | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3361542 |
| Brief Description |
As an initial step in a project to apply health status measures in routine clinical practice, we developed and tested patient profiles based on the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales (AIMS) instrument. |
| Link | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2366602 |
| Brief Description |
Comparisons of five health status instruments for orthopaedic evaluation. |
| Link | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1491391 |
| Brief Description |
The utility of the arthritis impact measurement scales for patients with psoriatic arthritis. |
| Instrument/Tool Translations References | |
| Link | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8761188 |
| Brief Description |
Evaluation of a Dutch version of the AIMS2 for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. |
| Link | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2775323 |
| Brief Description |
Development and initial validation of a dual-language English-Spanish format for the Arthritis ImpactMeasurement Scales. |
| Link | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7966065 |
| Brief Description |
Quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis: validation of a Spanish version of the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales(Spanish-AIMS). |
| DEVELOPER CONTACT INFORMATION | |
| Correspondence to | Robert F. Meenan |
| rmwwnan@bu.edu | |
| Address | Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany St., T-C-306, Boston, MA 02118 |
| Website | --- |
| Available | --- |
| Links |
IMS are available with user manual from Dr. Meenan (contact information above). |
| DESCRIPTION OF THE INSTRUMENT | |
| Type Of Measure | Questionnaire |
| Brief Description |
AIMS is a disease-specific measure of physical, social, and emotional well-being designed as a measure of outcome in arthritis. There are 9 scales: mobility, physical activity (walking, bending, lifting), dexterity, household activity (managing money and medications, housekeeping), social activities, activities of daily living, pain, depression, and anxiety. |
| Number of Items | 45 items grouped in 9 subscales |
| Range | 0-10 for each section. |
| Responses options/scale |
Yes Guttman Scale (a series of questions/statements that are graded so that endorsement of one level of disability automatically indicates disability on all levels below it). In AIMS the number of response options within the Guttman scales varies across sections. |
| Developed for | Not specified |
| PRACTICAL APPLICATION | |
| Method of administration | Self-administered |
| Recommendations to score |
For scoring, the Guttman scaling is ignored and each item is scored separately without weights. The score for each section is standardized to a 0-10 scale using a standardization formula. The total health score is calculated by summing the standardized scores for mobility, physical and household activities, dexterity, pain, and depression. |
| Score Interpretation | Higher scores indicate greater disability. Zero represents good health status, 10 and 60 represent poor health status. |
| Cut-off points | --- |
| Cut-off points applied to | --- |
| Smallest detectable change if described | --- |
| Smallest detectable change applied to | --- |
| Completion time by the patient | 0 minutes |
| Scoring time by the assessor | 0 minutes |
| Training to score | users' guides are available |
| Strengths | Useful in clinical practice & research |
| Limitations | Complex scoring, Lengthy |
| OTHER COMMENTS | |
| Other Comments | --- |