Subjective Disease Experience in Sjögren's Syndrome: A Computerized Discrimination Analysis

Abstract

A study was made of the ability of a computerized discrimination analysis to distinguish between primary or secondary Sjögren's syndrome on the one hand and, on the other, various rheumatic diseases which may be, but in this study were not, complicated by Sjögren's syndrome. The analysis was based on a questionnaire including 76 two- or three-scale items. Among these 76 questions, five with a maximum potential for distinguishing between various subgroups were selected and obviously represent the questions for the physician to ask when taking the patient's history. As shown by classification matrix tables, computerized analysis of questionnaires might represent a useful way to assess the prevalence of clinical cases of Sjögren's syndrome and to aid health care administrators in assessing the extent of the Sjögren's syndrome problem. In contrast, manual analysis of patients' graded answers did not provide any simple or practicable method for the diagnostic work-up of cases. Therefore it seems that subjective symptoms should not be included in the diagnostic criteria for Sjögren's syndrome, which in clinical work should be based on objective evidence alone.

Key Words:

• Sjögren's syndrome
• patient history
• questionnaire
• discrimination analysis
• diagnostic criteria