Knee-specific quality-of-life instruments: which ones measure symptoms and disabilities most important to patients?

BackgroundKnee-specific quality-of-life instruments are commonly used outcome measures. However, they have not been compared for their ability to detect symptoms and disabilities important to patients.Study DesignCohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 1.MethodsSubjective portions of 11 knee-specific instruments were consolidated. The frequency and importance of each item were assessed. One hundred fifty-three patients with anterior cruciate ligament ruptures, isolated meniscal tears, or osteoarthritis were polled. Instruments were ranked according to the number of items with high mean importance, high frequency importance product, and low mean importance, and according to the number endorsed by at least 51% of patients.ResultsFor anterior cruciate ligament tears, the Mohtadi quality-of-life instrument scored highest in 3 categories. For meniscal tears, the Western Ontario Meniscal Evaluation Tool scored highly in all 4 categories. For osteoarthritis, the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Ost...