Beyond muscle strength: functional performance measures enhance assessment of disease activity in juvenile dermatomyositis
Authors' conclusion
FPMs are quick, feasible tools that may provide complementary information on dynamic muscle performance not fully captured by CMAS or MMT8.
Study context
- Population
- Children with JDM assessed with broad jump (BJ) and 10MR alongside PGA, CDASI, MMT8 and Childhood Myositis Assessment Scale (CMAS) at baseline and follow-up visits (every 3–6 months)
- Participants
- 39 children
- Outcome
- Measurement properties (construct validity and responsiveness) of FPMs (BJ and 10MR) in JDM
Methodological detailslongitudinal
- Longitudinal
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Responsiveness of 10MR, standardized response mean
−0.56
Responsiveness of BJ, standardized response mean
0.31
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Functional heterogeneity within clinically inactive disease (CID)
- Clustering on CMAS and MMT8 identified a subgroup with relatively low strength scores and poor FPM performance
- Four-variable clustering (BJ, 10MR, CMAS, MMT8) stratified CID patients into three distinct phenotypes, one with high CMAS/MMT8 but reduced functional performance measures (FPMs)
Internal consistency of FPMs with CMAS/MMT8, Cronbach's α
- Cronbach's α (low)
- 0.44
Original publication
Beyond muscle strength: functional performance measures enhance assessment of disease activity in juvenile dermatomyositis. Rheumatology (Oxford). Published 25 April 2026. doi:10.
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