The Association Between Preoperative Patient-Reported Health Status and Postoperative Survey Completion Following Arthroplasty: Registry-Based Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are commonly used to report outcomes after hip and knee arthroplasty, but response rates are rarely complete. Given that preoperative health status (as measured by PROMs) is a strong predictor of outcomes (using the same measures) and that these outcomes may influence the response rate, it is possible that postoperative response rates (the proportion of patients providing preoperative PROMs who also provide postoperative PROMs) may be influenced by preoperative health status. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to test the association between preoperative PROMs and postoperative response status following hip and knee arthroplasty. METHODS: Data from the PROMs program of the Australian national joint registry were used. The preoperative PROMs were the Oxford Hip Score or Oxford Knee Score, The EQ-5D Utility Index, and the EQ visual analog scale (VAS) for overall health. Logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex, BMI, and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Physical Status Classification System, was used to test the association between each preoperative PROM and response status for the 6-month postsurgery survey. RESULTS: Data from 9499 and 16,539 patients undergoing elective total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for osteoarthritis, respectively, were included in the analysis. Adjusting for age, sex, BMI, and ASA, there was no significant difference in response status at the postoperative follow-up based on the preoperative Oxford Hip or Knee Scores (odds ratio [OR] 1.00, 95% CI 0.99-1.01 for both; P=.70 for THA and P=.85 for TKA). Healthier patients (based on the EQ VAS scores) preoperatively were more likely to respond postoperatively, but this difference was negligible (OR 1.00, 95% CI 1.00-1.01 for THA and TKA; P=.004 for THA and P<.001 for TKA). The preoperative EQ Utility Index was not associated with the postoperative response rate for THA (OR 1.14, 95% CI 0.96-1.36; P=.13) or TKA patients (OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.91-1.22; P=.49). CONCLUSIONS: The likelihood of responding to a postoperative PROMs survey for patients undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty was not associated with clinically important differences in preoperative patient-reported joint pain, function, or health-related quality of life. This suggests that the assessment of postoperative outcomes in hip and knee arthroplasty is not biased by differences in preoperative health measures between responders and nonresponders.