Turkish validation of the early psoriatic arthritis screening questionnaire in psoriasis patients

Introduction and Objective: Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory, systemic disease within the group of sypondyloarthropathies seen in patients with psoriasis. In this study, we aimed to perform a Turkish validation and reliability study of Early Psoriatic Arthritis Screening Questionnaire (EARP), which was previously developed by Tinazzi et al.to screen for psoriatic arthritis in psoriasis patients in a rapid, simple and reliable manner. Materials and Methods: Volunteers diagnosed with psoriasis who met the study criteria and applied to Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine Dermatology outpatient clinic between February 2023 and November 2023 were included in the study. Patients wiht psoriasis completed the Turkish translation of the EARP questionnaire, which was translated with the permission of Dr Tinazzi, which was self-administered before the diagnosis of PsA was confirmed. Afterwards, dermatological examinations were performed by a dermatology physician. The patients were then referred to Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine, Rheumatology Outpatient Clinic. After preliminary evaluation, demografic data, presence or absence of inflammatory low back pain, hip pain, peripheral arthritis, enthesitis, dactylitis findings, family history, height, weight, body mass index (BMI) values of all patients included in the study were recorded. The patients were evaluated by a rheumatologist using the diagnostic criteria for psoriatic arthritis (CASPAR). The data obtained were planned to be analysed with SPSS 21.0 software. Results: The age at diagnosis of PsA was found to be the 4th decade. The presence of PsA was found to be higher in female patients. The risk of PsA development was significantly higher in patients with higher BMI. PsA was found to develop more frequently in patients wiht longer duration of psoriasis. The incidence of PsA was higher in patients with inflammatory low back pain and/or hip pain. In our study, when the cut-off value was taken as ≥3.5, sensitivity and specificity were found to be %89 and %89, respectively. The Cronbach's Alpha value of all questions was found to be 0.760. The EARP questionnaire showed high sensitivity and specificity for the early diagnosis of PsA and was considered to be applicable and reliable for the Turkish population. Conclusion: Our study was validated in the Turkish population and we recommend multicentre studies. Since the results were successful and there is no other questionnaire for early diagnosis of PsA as supported by the literature, we recommend that the EARP questionnaire should be used by many physicians, especially in dermatology clinics, for patients with psoriasis. With this validation study, the EARP questionnaire will be used more widely and early diagnosis of PsA patients will be ensured