Background

This article reviews four commonly used approaches to assess patient responsiveness to a treatment or therapy [Return To Normal (RTN), Minimal Important Difference (MID), Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID), OMERACT-OARSI (OO)], and demonstrates how each of the methods can be formulated in a multi-level modelling (MLM) framework.

Introduction and Objective. An important subset of patients is dissatisfied after total joint arthroplasty (TJA) due to residual functional impairment. This study investigated the assessment of objectively measured step-up performance following TJA, to identify patients with poor functional improvement after surgery, and to predict residual functional impairment during early postoperative rehabilitation. Secondary, longitudinal changes of block step-up (BS) transfers were compared with functional changes of subjective patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) following TJA. Materials and Methods. Patients with end stage hip or knee osteoarthritis (n = 76, m/f = 44/32; mean age = 64.4 standard deviation 9.4 years) were measured preoperatively and 3 and 12 months postoperatively. PROMs were assessed using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) function subscore. BS transfers were assessed by wearable-derived measures of time. In our cohort, subgroups were formed based on either 1) WOMAC function score or 2) BS performance, isolating the worst performing quartile (impaired) of each measure from the better performing others (non-impaired). Subgroup comparisons were performed with the Man-Whitney-U test and Wilcoxon Signed rank test resp. Responsiveness was calculated by the effect size, correlations with Pearson's correlation coefficient. A regression analysis was conducted to investigate predictors of poor functional outcome. Results. WOMAC function scores were strongly correlated to WOMAC pain scores (Pearson's r=0.67–0.84) and moderately correlated to BS performance (Pearson's r = 0.31–0.54). Prior to surgery, no significant differences for WOMAC function scores and BS performance were found between the impaired and non-impaired subgroups. One year after TJA, our cohort performed significantly better at WOMAC and BS with largest effect size for the non-impaired subgroups (0.62 and 0.43 resp.) At 12 months postop, 56% of patients allocated to the impaired subgroup defined by WOMAC, represented the impaired subgroup defined by BS. Allocation to the impaired subgroup at 3 months postop, raised the odds for belonging to the impaired subgroup at 12 months for WOMAC with an odds ratio=19.14 (67%) and for BS with an odds ratio=4.41 (42%). Conclusions. Assessment of BS performance following TJA reveals residual functional impairment that is not captured by pain-dominated PROMs. Its additional use may help to early identify those patients at risk for a poor outcome

Objectives

The patient-rated wrist evaluation (PRWE) and the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire are patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) used for clinical and research purposes. Methodological high-quality clinimetric studies that determine the measurement properties of these PROMs when used in patients with a distal radial fracture are lacking. This study aimed to validate the PRWE and DASH in Dutch patients with a displaced distal radial fracture (DRF).