Responsiveness differences in outcome instruments after revision hip arthroplasty: What are the implications?

Responsiveness to change is an important psychometric property of an outcome instrument. Assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is critical to outcome assessment after total joint replacement, a surgery aimed at improving pain, function and HRQoL of the patients undergoing these procedures. In a recent study, Shi et al. examined the responsiveness to change of various subscales of two instruments, physician-administered Harris Hip Score and patient self-administered Short Form-36 (SF-36), 6 months after revision total hip arthroplasty. The responsiveness statistics for both scales were reasonable, higher for Harris Hip Score than SF-36. This is the first study to examine responsiveness of these instruments in revision THA patients in a systematic fashion.