Reliability and validity of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association hip disease evaluation questionnaire (JHEQ) for patients with hip disease.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The Japanese Orthopaedic Association hip disease evaluation questionnaire (JHEQ) was developed to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) in patients with hip disease. This questionnaire consists of three subscales pain; movement; and mental. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the JHEQ for use as a clinical evaluation tool. METHODS: We investigated patients who visited the outpatient department at our hospital and affiliated hospital between April and May 2010. The study population comprised 286 patients (239 women) with a mean age of 56.8 years. The diagnosis was osteoarthritis of the hip in 230 patients, avascular osteonecrosis of the femoral head in 49 patients, and other conditions in 7 patients. The JHEQ questionnaire, the SF-36 questionnaire as a generic QOL scale, and the Oxford hip score (OHS) as a disease-specific scale, were filled out by the patient while waiting in the outpatient department. RESULTS: Pearson's correlation coefficients of 0.6 were observed between JHEQ pain and SF-36 bodily pain (BP) subscales, and between JHEQ movement and SF-36 physical functioning (PF) subscales. The JHEQ mental subscale correlated with SF-36 social functioning (SF) and BP subscales. A strong negative correlation was seen between JHEQ pain and OHS pain subscales (r = -0.817). JHEQ movement subscale also showed a strong negative correlation with the OHS function subscale (r = -0.715). These results indicated the convergent validity of JHEQ. The internal consistency of pain, movement, and mental subscales of JHEQ was satisfactory, indicated by Cronbach's α coefficients of 0.92, 0.91, and 0.94, respectively. Each subscale also showed high test-retest reliability with intra-class correlation coefficients of 0.89, 0.93, and 0.85, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We determined the reliability and validity of JHEQ as a self-administered questionnaire that evaluates hip disease. JHEQ is useful as a tool for evaluating patients with hip disease.