Development of the Salford Rheumatoid Arthritis Foot Evaluation Instrument (SAFE)

Background For clinicians involved in managing the foot with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there is a dearth of patientreported outcome measures (PROs) available with only the Leeds Foot Impact Scale (LFIS). The LFIS currently lacks evidence for important measurement properties, does not permit a patient-specific assessment strategy and was designed using a restrictive scaling strategy. Therefore, the aim of this research was to develop a new PRO, the Salford Rheumatoid Arthritis Foot Evaluation Instrument (SAFE), working closely with clinicians and patients, to create an instrument with multiple assessment strategies (fixed and patient-specific) and rigorous measurement properties.