HSS Develops New, Short PROM Survey

A two-minute patient survey just might make everyone’s lives easier. Stephen Lyman, Ph.D., Yuo-Yo Lee, M.S., and Douglas Padgett, M.D. of Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York set out to improve upon existing surveys of Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) as related to total hip arthroplasty (THA).

Utilizing the HSS hip replacement registry, the team developed a short-form survey focused on the PROM’s questions most relevant to the end stage hip OA patient undergoing THA. The researchers identified 31 questions in the hip disability osteoarthritis outcomes survey (HOOS) that were quantitatively most difficult for pre-operative THA patients and qualitatively most relevant to hip OA patients. HOOS surveys from 2, 371 primary unilateral THA patients with hip OA were used to develop the new survey. The new survey—HOOS, JR.—contains a mere six questions and takes approximately two minutes to compete. According to the authors, the survey demonstrated high internal consistency, moderate to near perfect external validity against other validated hip surveys, very high responsiveness, and favorable floor and ceiling effects.

Asked about the survey, Dr. Lyman told OTW, “The questions are about the activities that are most relevant and difficult for patients scheduled for hip replacement. What we ended up with are all universal movements or activities that do not require any cultural or social context. We all rise from sitting, go up and down stairs, etc. Questions that were removed included some that require social context such as going shopping, light domestic duties (housework). The complete HOOS can be found here: http://koos.nu/”

“To popularize the survey we have made it free to use. Some of the established hip surveys require payment per administration. Also, we are in the process of presenting this survey to a number of key external stakeholders who are considering adopting this as one of their preferred outcomes surveys for patients undergoing hip replacement.”