Reliability and validity of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association hip disease evaluation questionnaire (JHEQ) for patients with hip disease

The Japanese Orthopaedic Association hip disease evaluation questionnaire (JHEQ) was developed to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) in patients with hip disease. This questionnaire consists of three subscales: pain; movement; and mental. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the JHEQ for use as a clinical evaluation tool. We investigated patients who visited the outpatient department at our hospital and affiliated hospital between April and May 2010. The study population comprised 286 patients (239 women) with a mean age of 56.8 years. The diagnosis was osteoarthritis of the hip in 230 patients, avascular osteonecrosis of the femoral head in 49 patients, and other conditions in 7 patients. The JHEQ questionnaire, the SF-36 questionnaire as a generic QOL scale, and the Oxford hip score (OHS) as a disease-specific scale, were filled out by the patient while waiting in the outpatient department. Pearson's correlation coefficients of 0.6 were observed between JHEQ pain and SF-36 bodily pain (BP) subscales, and between JHEQ movement and SF-36 physical functioning (PF) subscales. The JHEQ mental subscale correlated with SF-36 social functioning (SF) and BP subscales. A strong negative correlation was seen between JHEQ pain and OHS pain subscales (r = -0.817). JHEQ movement subscale also showed a strong negative correlation with the OHS function subscale (r = -0.715). These results indicated the convergent validity of JHEQ. The internal consistency of pain, movement, and mental subscales of JHEQ was satisfactory, indicated by Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.92, 0.91, and 0.94, respectively. Each subscale also showed high test-retest reliability with intra-class correlation coefficients of 0.89, 0.93, and 0.85, respectively. We determined the reliability and validity of JHEQ as a self-administered questionnaire that evaluates hip disease. JHEQ is useful as a tool for evaluating patients with hip disease.