Patient selection: adult >= 55 years old with arthritis in the United States (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, etc)
Causes of disability: difficulty walking, pain, deformity, restricted joint movement
Risk factors for arthritis-related disability and functional impairment:
(1) older age (>= 75 years)
(2) female gender
(3) longer duration of arthritis (> 5 years)
(4) non-White
(5) poorly educated (grade school only)
(6) single (living alone)
(7) extremes of body mass index (< 20 or >= 30 kg per square meter)
(8) recent medical care for the arthritis (within the past year)
(9) greater number of other chronic comorbid conditions (>= 2)
(10) great number of other impairments (>= 2)
where:
• Several of these risk factors are associated with moderate to severe arthritis.
• Some of the risk factors are related to socioeconomic status.
• The data could be collected from the EHR without knowledge of clinical severity.
