CORRELATION OF PATIENT QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES AND PHYSICIAN HISTORY IN GRADING CLINICAL OUTCOME FOLLOWING HIP AND KNEE ARTHROPLASTY - A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OF 201 JOINT ARTHROPLASTIES

Questionnaires are commonly used in orthopaedic outcome studies. This study sought to determine if responses to a simple standardized questi onnaire correlated with responses obtained during a physician intervie w in evaluation of clinical outcome following hip and knee arthroplast y. One hundred sixty-two patients with 201 hip and knee arthroplasties were asked to fill out a questionnaire prior to returning for routine follow-up evaluation. There was a highly significant correlation (P < .0001, r =.74) between scores calculated from patient responses on the questionnaire and those calculated from responses recorded during the subsequent physician visit. There was no significant difference betwe en patient and physician clinical hip scores, but physicians gave sign ificantly higher knee scores than patients for both long- (>4.5 years, P <.05) and short-term (less than or equal to 4.5 years, P <.0001) fo llowup periods; however, 97% of patient responses were within one grad e of physician-recorded answers to the same questions. Eight and one-h alf percent of scores differed in overall evaluation from good-excelle nt to fair-poor categories. This study both validates and defines more clearly the limitations of questionnaires for followup evaluation of clinical results following total hip and knee arthroplasty.