The Munich Shoulder Questionnaire (MSQ): development and validation of an effective patient-reported tool for outcome measurement and patient safety in shoulder surgery

• Main Authors: Schmidutz Florian, Beirer Marc, Braunstein Volker, Bogner Viktoria, Wiedemann Ernst, Biberthaler Peter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2012-05-01
• Series: Patient Safety in Surgery
• Subjects: Shoulder outcome; Shoulder function; Patient safety; Score; Questionnaire; Self-assessment; CMS; SPADI; DASH; MSQ
• Online Access: http://www.pssjournal.com/content/6/1/9

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Outcome measurement in shoulder surgery is essential to evaluate the patient safety and treatment efficiency. Currently this is jeopardized by the fact that most patient-reported self-assessment instruments are not comparable. Hence, the aim was to develop a reliable self-assessment questionnaire which allows an easy follow-up of patients. The questionnaire also allows the calculation of 3 well established scoring systems, i.e. the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI), the Constant-Murley Score (CMS), and the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) Score. The subjective and objective items of these three systems were condensed into a single 30-questions form and validated against the original questionnaires.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A representative collective of patients of our shoulder clinic was asked to fill in the newly designed self-assessment Munich Shoulder Questionnaire (MSQ). At the same time, the established questionnaires for self-assessment of CONSTANT, SPADI and DASH scores were handed out. The obtained results were compared by linear regression analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Fifty one patients completed all questionnaires. The correlation coefficients of the results were r = 0.91 for the SPADI, r = -0.93 for the DASH and r = 0.94 for the CMS scoring system, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We developed an instrument which allows a quantitative self-assessment of shoulder function. It provides compatible data sets for the three most popular shoulder function scoring systems by one single, short 30-item. This instrument can be used by shoulder surgeons to effectively monitor the outcome, safety and quality of their treatment and also compare the results to published data in the literature.</p>