Translation and Validation of the Korean Version of the Forgotten Joint Score

The Forgotten Joint Score (FJS) is a newly developed patient-reported outcome measure designed to evaluate clinical outcome after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The FJS is known as a sensitive test with a low ceiling effect. It has been recently translated into many languages. However, no study has reported the validity or reliability of a Korean version of the FJS (K-FJS). Thus, the purpose of this study was to address this issue.

According to guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation, translation of the English version of the FJS was performed. After obtaining a license from the original developer, 150 patients who had undergone TKA at more than 1 year to less than 5 years ago completed the K-FJS, visual analog scale, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis index (WOMAC), and the 36-Item Short Form (SF-36) health survey. To measure test-retest reliability, the K-FJS was completed twice by telephone survey for 100 patients. Responsiveness was retrospectively calculated based on a survey of 50 patients at 3 months and 1 year after surgery.

The K-FJS exhibited an excellent reliability (Cronbach's α, 0.967; intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.958; 95% confidence interval, 0.930-0.974). The ceiling effect of the K-FJS was 8.7% (n = 13), which was lower than the WOMAC's ceiling effect (10%). There was no floor effect. The correlation coefficients with WOMAC and SF-36 (physical function) were 0.708 and 0.682, respectively, indicating good construct validity. However, its correlation with mental health subscale of SF-36 was low (r = 0.143). At 3 to 12 months after TKA, the standardized response mean (SRM) was 0.67, which was lower than the SRM of WOMAC (1.03) obtained in the same period. The K-FJS demonstrated strong measurement properties in terms of good construct validity and reliability.

This study suggests that the K-FJS is an excellent instrument that can be used to monitor clinical outcomes after TKA. Using this standardized K-FJS, it would be possible for medical institutions to share more accurate clinical results.