Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Disease Evaluation Questionnaire (JHEQ): a patient-based evaluation tool for hip-joint disease. The Subcommittee on Hip Disease Evaluation of the Clinical Outcome Committee of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association

TLDR

The Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Score is provider‑focused, and no existing tool measures patient‑reported quality of life for Japanese hip‑joint disease patients. The study aimed to create a patient‑based questionnaire that accurately captures quality of life for Japanese hip‑joint disease patients. The questionnaire was developed from 464 patient opinions, consisting of 58 items, and validated through a survey of 501 cases with factor analysis on 402 responses. Factor analysis yielded three reliable 7‑item categories—movement, mental, and pain—with Cronbach’s α values of 0.93–0.95, including items specific to Asian lifestyles, making the tool useful for Japanese and other populations requiring deep hip flexion.

Abstract

The Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Score is widely used in Japan, but this tool is designed to reflect the viewpoint of health-care providers rather than that of patients. In gauging the effect of medical therapies in addition to clinical results, it is necessary to assess quality of life (QOL) from the viewpoint of patients. However, there is no tool evaluating QOL for Japanese patients with hip-joint disease. With the aim of more accurately classifying QOL for Japanese patients with hip-joint disease, we prepared a questionnaire with 58 items for the survey derived from 464 opinions obtained from approximately 100 Japanese patients with hip-joint disease and previously devised evaluation criteria. In the survey, we collected information on 501 cases, and 402 were subjected to factor analysis. From this, we formulated three categories—movement, mental, and pain—each comprising 7 items, for a total of 21 items to be used as evaluation criteria for hip-joint function. The Cronbach’s α coefficients for the three categories were 0.93, 0.93, and 0.95, respectively, indicating the high reliability of the evaluation criteria. The 21 items included some related to the Asian lifestyle, such as use of a Japanese-style toilet and rising from the floor, which are not included in other evaluation tools. This self-administered questionnaire may become a useful tool in the evaluation of not only Japanese patients, but also of members of other ethnic groups who engage in deep flexion of the hip joint during daily activities.