We're sorry that you are having problems opening your questionnaire. Can you tell us if you are seeing any error messages, and what exactly happens when try to open it? Please try again and let us know what you see. If you can copy and paste the error messages and send them to us that will help solve the problem. Contact Us
You can also log in to your questionnaire with the following page.
Click on the link
http://www.arthritis-research.org/WQ50/WQ.asp,
or type it into your web browser's address bar, and login with your date of birth and patkey.
The patkey is a unique identifier we use in our database to organize your information. It is primarily for office use, but can be used as an alternate login to your questionnaire. If you have a printed copy of the questionnaire you received in the mail, look for your Patkey on the cover page. If you do not know your Patkey, please contact the NDB, and be sure to include your full name and date of birth for identification.
On some computers set up for larger text, the questions will sometimes drop down on the page below the navigation bar. This is what has happened if you see a bluish/gray screen with the navigation bar on the left. In order to see the questions, all you need to do is scroll down using the scroll bar on the right hand of the browser. Or, you can press the "Page Down" button on your keyboard a few times until you see the questions. Please contact us if this does not work.
We do our best to make WebQuest compatible with Apple Macintosh computers. You are probably having a problem caused by the web browser you use. If you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer for the Mac, please be aware that this browser will not work with WebQuest. Please do not try to use it, it will not save your answers. That browser is obsolete, as Microsoft stopped upgrading it several years ago.
If you have another browser installed on your computer, give it a try. WebQuest is compatible with Netscape 5.5 or higher, or Firefox.
The best bet for you is to use the latest version of the Netscape browser, which
is available free over the internet:
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/default.jsp
Firefox:
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Or, contact us if you would prefer a paper copy of the questionnaire sent to you in the mail.
The proper way to answer the smoking question if you smoke less than a pack a day would be to put 1. This is not completely accurate, but you would just be rounding up, even if you smoke just one or two cigarettes a day. For the purposes of this research, It's important that we know about any smoking, so if you are smoking half a pack a day, please put 1 for your answer. We have considered allowing fractions for this question. If we decide to do that we'll let you know in the instructions.
Questionnaires take approximately 30 to 60 minutes to complete, once every six months.
It is usually possible to adjust the type size on your computer screen. This is usually found in the VIEW menu of your browser. You can also adjust the screen resolution from the control panel. You can find out how to do that using the help information on your computer.
At the top of each WebQuest page you see the word "Print." Click there, and your print dialogue box will open up. You must have a printer attached to your coputer to print. An alternative is to use the copy and paste functions of your web browser to save the answers to a file on your computer.
We usually are unable to retrieve past questionnaires for you. If you want to keep track of your answers for your own records, the best thing to do would be to print the pages as you go.
Some questions ask about your rheumatic disorder, and others ask about your general health, which includes everything else, such as any other medical problems you may have. If it’s not clear, you should answer with your general health in mind. In any case, don't worry about the difference too much or spend too much time on it. Your first thoughts on it are probably the most valuable to us.
In fact, many of the people in the study have more than one health problem. We are able to separate out the symptoms by using many of the answers you give us. There are many, many diseases and conditions that people in the study have in addition to their rheumatic diseases. It would beyond our capacity to study all or many of them, and the length of the questionnaire would probably cause many people to drop out, which would hurt the basic purpose of our research.
Many of the questions are subjective. We want you to answer them from your perspective. For example, we’re interested in whether something is heavy to you, not to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Likewise, unless the question says otherwise, we’re interested in your current abilities, not those when you were younger or perhaps healthier. So "normal" is based on what you think is normal.
We're glad that your rheumatic disease isn’t active at the moment. Ironically, it’s when you’re feeling good that we really need you in the study so we can figure out what worked for you and whether it might apply to others, and compare any secondary conditions you might have with those of people who are not as healthy as you. If we only studied people who were feeling bad, it would be impossible to know what treatments work. Conversely, people who come out of remission also provide a lot of valuable information. Of course, we hope your remission is very lengthy.
Knowing how to mark pain severity or function can be difficult. If the question asks for a specific time period, such as the last 4 weeks, you should try to focus on that. If it asks about the last 6 months, it may be harder to remember, but you're looking for an average of how you were over that period. It's also perfectly normal to have high function at one point in the day and then worse function later or the next day. In the end, these kinds of questions are about your impressions about yourself, so there is no right or wrong answer. You just have to go with what you feel is right.
As for questions that may not apply to you, if you contact us with a specific example, we may be of more help. Otherwise, just know that we try to make sure the questions make sense for everyone and that all appropriate answers are listed. If not, you simply have to make the best choice, even though it may not be completely correct for you.
We understand that it may not always be possible for everyone to remember something that happened or started a long time ago. If you can't remember the answer to a question or how you felt in the past, the best we can hope for is that you'll give us your best guess.