Development of a Chinese version of the Western Ontario Meniscal Evaluation Tool: cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation

BACKGROUND: The Western Ontario Meniscal Evaluation Tool (WOMET) is a questionnaire designed to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with meniscal pathology. Our study aims to culturally adapt and validate the WOMET into a Chinese version. METHODS: We translated the WOMET into Chinese. Then, a total of 121 patients with meniscal pathology were invited to participate in this study. To assess the test-retest reliability, the Chinese version WOMET was completed twice at 7-day intervals by the participants. The construct validity was assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient or Spearman’s correlation to test for correlations among the Chinese version WOMET and the eight domains of Short Form-36 (SF-36), the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), and the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) score. Responsiveness was tested by comparison of the preoperative and postoperative scores of the Chinese version WOMET. RESULTS: The test-retest reliability of the overall scale and different domains were all found to be excellent. The Cronbach’s α was 0.90. The Chinese version WOMET correlated well with other questionnaires which suggested good construct validity. We observed no ceiling and floor effects of the Chinese version WOMET. We also found good responsiveness for the effect size, and the standardized response mean values were 0.86 and 1.11. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese version of the WOMET appears to be reliable and valid in evaluating patients with meniscal pathology.