Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Japanese Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS)

In Japan, only few cross-culturally adapted, internationally used orthopaedic patient self-assessed outcome scores are available. In addition, the high incidence of knee osteoarthritis (OA) suggests the need for validated outcome measures such as the widely used Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) for Japanese populations. The purpose of this study was to provide a cross-culturally adapted and validated KOOS questionnaire for further use in national and international clinical projects involving Japanese patients. The Japanese KOOS was developed according to the standard cross-cultural adaptation guidelines. For validation, the KOOS was tested on 58 patients diagnosed with OA. Reliability was tested using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Internal consistency or homogeneity was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity was evaluated by quantifying the correlation between the KOOS and the Japanese OKS and SF-36 questionnaires with Spearmann's correlation coefficients. No major difficulties were encountered during the translation and pre-testing stages. All five KOOS subscales showed adequate reproducibility with ICC values greater than 0.85, high internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha values around 0.90, and high Spearmann's coefficients over 0.50 signifying good correlation between the KOOS subscales and the OKS as well as the majority of the established subscales of the SF-36. No floor and ceiling effects were observed for the five subscales. Our validated Japanese KOOS is a reliable and stable outcomes measure that provides a valuable basis for national and international clinical projects focusing on patient-based assessments in knee OA.