FLARE questionnaire (FI) is a self-management and identification tool that integrates the viewpoints of patients and rheumatologists, and can detect the current or recent RA relapse of rheumatoid arthritis. This study explores the correlation between FI score and disease activity of RA patients, and the ability to identify RA relapse. 

The study included 104 RA patients who visited our hospital from August 2014 to January 2015. All patients met the 1987 RA diagnostic standard of American Rheumatology Association (ACR), and DAS28-CRP was used as the gold standard. All patients received FI survey, and Spearman correlation analysis was conducted between FI and RA disease activity indicators DAS28 and CRP, ROC curve was drawn, and area under the curve was calculated.

 FI values were signiFIcantly correlated with DAS28 and CRP, Rho values were 0.23 and 0.059 respectively, p values were all <0.05. the diagnostic characteristics of FI were based on DAS28-CRP as gold standard, and the area under ROC curve was 89.2%, which indicated fi had good diagnostic characteristics.

The research results show that FI has a good correlation with clinical disease activity indicators DAS28 and CRP, so FI has a good effect in identifying patients with RA relapse.