The Joint Awareness Score: A Shortened, Simplified, Improved Alternative to the Forgotten Joint Score

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• The Forgotten Joint Score (FJS) is widely used but has noted limitations.
• Patients report issues with the English translation semantics and poorly differentiated answer options in the FJS.
• The FJS also has a scoring issue where 3 or more unanswered questions result in no score.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate the Joint Awareness Score (JAS) as an alternative patient-reported outcomes measure.
• The JAS aims to improve upon the FJS by being easier to understand and shorter to complete.
• To test the hypothesis that the JAS strongly correlates with the FJS and can serve as a substitute.

Main Methods:

• A prospective registry of knee arthroplasty patients was utilized.
• Patients were administered both the Forgotten Joint Score (FJS) and the Joint Awareness Score (JAS).
• Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, and correlation was calculated using Pearson's correlation coefficient.

Main Results:

• The study included 174 knee arthroplasty patients.
• Cronbach's alpha indicated high internal consistency for both FJS (0.97 at 6 & 12 months) and JAS (0.89 at 6 months, 0.85 at 12 months).
• Strong positive correlations were found between FJS and JAS at 6 months (0.88) and 12 months (0.86).

Conclusions:

• The Joint Awareness Score (JAS) is a validated patient-reported outcomes measure.
• The JAS demonstrates strong correlation with the Forgotten Joint Score (FJS), suggesting it can be a suitable substitute.
• The JAS offers advantages over the FJS, including fewer questions, improved semantics, and simplified answer options.