Development and validation of the French version of a tool assessing patient's expectations in lower limb osteoarthritis.

Objective: The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) Hip Replacement Expectations Survey and Knee Replacement Expectations Survey are validated tools developed to measure patients' preoperative expectations for hip and knee arthroplasty. These instruments have possible uses in both daily practice and research. Our objective was to assess the test-retest reliability and the construct validity of the French version of the surveys.

Methods: Patients scheduled for total hip (n = 82) or knee replacement (n = 61) aged 38-90 years were included. All completed the HSS Hip or Knee Replacement Expectations Survey and the Expectation WOMAC to determine concurrent validity. The test-retest reliability was assessed using the intraclass coefficient correlation (ICC), the Bland and Altman Method and the coefficient of variation; the internal consistency was assessed by the Cronbach α coefficient. The construct validity was investigated using the Pearson correlation coefficient and floor and ceiling effects by percentage frequency of lowest or highest possible score achieved by respondents.

Results: 143 patients scheduled for hip or knee arthroplasty were included. The reliability was excellent between the test and the rested total score, with an ICC of 0.902 (0.853-0.936) and CV of 4.06% for the French Hip Replacement Expectations Survey and 0.865 (0.786-0.917) and CV of 7.7% for the French Knee Replacement Expectations Survey, without bias. The Cronbach α coefficient was 0.72 for hip Survey and 0.82 for knee Survey showing a good internal consistency. Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.45 and 0.48 between Expectations WOMAC and HSS, respectively for hip Survey and knee Survey, were observed but with systematic bias. The lowest possible score was not reported by any patient and only three patients (3.66%) scheduled for hip arthroplasty reported the highest possible score.

Conclusions: The French version of the HSS Hip or Knee Replacement Expectations Survey is a reliable and valid questionnaire and compares favourably with the original English version. Therefore, this new version may help French-speaking clinicians to evaluate expectations before lower limb arthroplasty.