Relationships Between PROMIS and Legacy Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (PROM) Scores in the MARS Cohort at 10-Year Follow-up.

Background: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are used to evaluate the impact of musculoskeletal conditions and their treatment on patients' quality of life, but they have limitations, such as high responder burden and floor and ceiling effects. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) was developed to address these issues but needs to be further evaluated in comparison with legacy PROMs. The goals of this study were to evaluate the floor and ceiling effects of, the correlations between, and the predictive ability of PROMIS scores compared with traditional legacy measures at 10-year follow-up in a cohort who underwent revision anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction.

Methods: A total of 203 patients (88.7% White; 51.7% female) who underwent revision ACL reconstruction completed the PROMIS via computer adaptive tests as well as legacy PROMs at the cross-sectional, 10-year follow-up of the longitudinal MARS cohort study (MARS cohort n = 1,234). Floor and ceiling effects and Spearman rho correlations between PROMIS and legacy measures are reported. Linear regression with quadratic terms were used to develop and evaluate conversion equations to predict legacy scores from the PROMIS.

Results: No floor or ceiling effects were reported for the PROMIS Physical Function (PF) domain, whereas a floor effect was found for 37.9% of the participants for the PROMIS Pain Interference (PI) domain, and a ceiling effect was found for 34.0% of the participants for the PROMIS Physical Mobility (PM) domain. PROMIS domains correlated moderately with the International Knee Documentation Committee total subjective score (absolute value of rho [|ρ|] = 0.68 to 0.74), fairly to moderately with the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index scores (|ρ| = 0.52 to 0.67), and fairly with the Marx Activity Rating Scale (|ρ| = 0.35 to 0.44). None of the legacy-measure scores were accurately predicted by the PROMIS scores.

Conclusions: The PROMIS PF domain has value in assessing patients 10 years after revision ACL reconstruction. Because of floor and ceiling effects, using the PI and PM domains may not allow for precision when measuring long-term changes in pain and mobility. Although the PROMIS measures correlated with the legacy measures, with effect sizes ranging from fair to moderate, the legacy scores were not accurately predicted by the PROMIS. The results suggest that knee-specific legacy measures should not be eliminated from long-term follow-up when the goal is to capture the specific knee-related information that they provide.

Level of evidence: Therapeutic Level II . See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.