Patients undergoing knee surgery provided accurate ratings of preoperative quality of life and function 2 weeks after surgery

ObjectiveTo evaluate patients' ability to recall their preoperative self-reported quality of life, function, and general health 2 weeks postoperatively.Study Design and SettingWe randomized consecutive patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery to group I (assessments at 4 weeks preoperatively, on the day of surgery, and 2 weeks and 12 months postoperatively) or group II (assessments at 2 weeks and 12 months postoperatively). At each visit patients completed disease-specific, knee-specific, and generic health rating scales. At a median of 2 weeks postoperative (range, 0.6 to 14 weeks), patients completed questionnaires according to their recollection of their health 2 weeks before surgery.ResultsAgreement between actual and recalled data was excellent for disease-specific (ICCWOMET = 0.88 (95% CI 0.82–0.91), ICCACL-QOL = 0.86 (95% CI 0.75–0.91)), knee-specific (ICCIKDC = 0.92 (95% CI 0.90–0.94), ICCKOOS = 0.93 (95% CI 0.91 to 0.95), and general physical health (ICCSF-36(PCS) = 0.81 (95% CI 0.75–0.86)) instruments. Agreement for general mental health was moderate (ICCSF-36(MCS) = 0.67 (95% CI 0.58–0.75). Greater error associated with recalled ratings contributed to small increases in sample size requirements or small decreases in power to detect differences between groups.ConclusionPatients recalled their preoperative quality of life, function, and general health at 2 weeks postoperative with sufficiently high accuracy to warrant substituting prospectively collected baseline data with recalled ratings.