TAURANGA WAITING LIST PROJECT: SCORING SYSTEMS AND RESCORING EXERCISES

Abstract

The aim of this study was to

• Report the clinical scores of patients placed on the waiting list for joint arthroplasty in Tauranga (CPAC, Oxford hip and knees scores, WOMAC and SF-12)

• Compare the scores for this cohort to those of patients reaching threshold for joint arthroplasty published internationally.

• Compare scores obtained between the scoring tools and establish accuracy of correlation in this population

In this prospective study all patients complete Oxford hip or knee scores, SF-12, and WOMAC scores. An initial subset of patients (457) who had been entered onto the waiting list prior to May 2005 also completed CPAC scores. A literature search for published studies using Oxford, WOMAC, SF-12 and SF-36 scoring tools was performed using Medline and PubMed databases.

Four hundred and fifty seven waiting list patients completed all 4 scores. Results, including correlation between scoring systems and comparisons with international data are reported.

We found significant variation between internationally accepted scores and the CPAC scoring system. Current waiting list Oxford scores for Tauranga patients are significantly worse than those published in the literature although when including the entire group the difference is small. 2.04 (1.34–2.74 95% CI). After rescoring, patients reaching the certainty threshold, (cTT), and active review threshold, (aTT), have scores that are much worse than those in the published literature.