Validation of the Musculoskeletal Health Questionnaire (MSK-HQ) in Primary Care Patients with Musculoskeletal Pain

Scott, Ian C.; McCray, Gareth; Lancaster, Gillian; Foster, Nadine E.; Hill, Jonathan C.

Abstract

Objective
To evaluate the responsiveness, and concurrent validity of the Musculoskeletal Health Questionnaire (MSK-HQ) in UK primary care patients with common musculoskeletal (MSK) pain presentations.

Methods
A secondary analysis of a primary care pilot randomised trial (STarT MSK) was performed. In 524 people consulting with back, neck, shoulder, knee, or multi-site pain, the following were recorded at 0/6 months: MSK-HQ, EQ-5D-5L, Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ; back pain), Neck Disability Index (NDI), Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI), Knee Injury and Outcome Score (KOOS), Short-Form-12 (SF-12; multisite pain). At 6-months, patients self-rated their global change in MSK condition, from -5 (“very much worse”) to +5 (“completely recovered”). Receiver operating characteristic curves evaluated abilities of 6-month changes in each patient reported outcome measure (PROM) to discriminate between patients improving/not improving on global change scores, with Minimal Clinically Important Differences (MCID) calculated.

Results
The MSK-HQ had a good ability to discriminate between MSK pain patients reporting global improvement vs. no improvement (area under the curve [AUC] 0.81; 95% CI 0.78, 0.85). Its discriminative ability was higher than the EQ-5D-5L (AUC 0.68; 95% CI 0.62, 0.73) and similar to site-specific PROMs. The MCID for the 6-month change in MSK-HQ was 5.5. The MSK-HQ had strong correlations with all PROMs, except SF-12 scores.

Conclusion
In primary care patients with common MSK pain presentations, the MSK-HQ was as good as existing pain-site specific PROMs at identifying people reporting global improvements in their MSK condition, and was better than the EQ-5D-5L.

Citation

Scott, I. C., McCray, G., Lancaster, G., Foster, N. E., & Hill, J. C. (2020). Validation of the Musculoskeletal Health Questionnaire (MSK-HQ) in Primary Care Patients with Musculoskeletal Pain. Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, 50(5), 813-820. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2020.06.022

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 25, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jul 13, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-10
• Journal: Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism
• Print ISSN: 0049-0172
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 813-820
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2020.06.022
• Keywords: Musculoskeletal, patient reported outcome measures, primary care, quality of life
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/417164
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2020.06.022