Rheumatoid arthritis constitutes a cardiovascular risk factor as significant as diabetes, yet remains insufficiently managed. The Heart Disease Fact Questionnaire – Rheumatoid Arthritis (HDFQ-RA1&2) is a self-questionnaire that assesses patients’ general knowledge about cardiovascular risk and more specifically associated with rheumatoid arthritis and its treatments. Objectives are to translate and adapt the HDFQ-RA into French and assess its psychometric properties in order for it to be used as instructional material by nurses in therapeutic education.

The questionnaire was translated into French and subsequently back-translated into English pursuant to the “Guidelines for the process of cross-cultural adaptation of self-report measures”. Psychometric properties were evaluated in a sample of 60 rheumatoid arthritis patients (test–retest procedure) between June and December 2013. Item content, factor analysis, and Kuder–Richardson's-alpha were used to evaluate acceptability, internal consistency, and reproducibility.

A culturally acceptable version for French patients was obtained. Cronbach's-alpha coefficient was higher than the usual recommended value of 0.6. Reproducibility was good (agreements measured by Kappa's coefficient >0.56 [recommended value=0.4]). Results showed that knowledge of cardiovascular risk was generally satisfactory (rate of correct responses ≥60%), but specific knowledge of the cardiovascular risk associated with rheumatoid arthritis remained poor, e.g. knowledge of the increased risk associated with rheumatoid arthritis (40% correct responses), higher risk with active rheumatoid arthritis, adverse effect of rheumatoid arthritis on lipid profile and the effects of corticosteroids and NSAIDs on cardiovascular risk.

The French-HDFQ-RA is valid for assessing patient knowledge of cardiovascular risk in general and associated with rheumatoid arthritis and its treatments.