Assessing the outcome of disorders of the hand - Is the patient evaluationmeasure reliable, valid, responsive and without bias?

The different attributes of the Patient Evaluation I Measure (PEM) question naire were investigated in 80 patients with a fracture of the scaphoid, Ass essments were made at 2, 8, 12, 26 and 52 weeks, Reliability was assessed b y measurement of the internal consistency of the different questions in 275 completed PEM forms. Cronbach's alpha, which needs to lie between 0.7 and 0.9, was 0.9 for the P EM, Pain, tenderness, swelling, wrist movement and grip strength correlated with the PEM score confirming the validity of the assessment, Changes in t he different variables between visits correlated significantly with changes in the PER I score; its effect size and standardised response mean were co mparable to those of grip strength and movement, confirming the responsiven ess of this questionnaire. Gender, dominance and the side injured did not i nfluence the scores. Older patients had a poorer outcome as assessed by the score which appeared to be a true effect and not age bias, Our study confi rmed that the PEM is a reliable, valid and responsive instrument in assessi ng outcomes of disorders of the hand.