Cross-cultural adaptation, reliability and validity of the Patient Rated Elbow Evaluation (PREE) for German-speaking patients.

OBJECTIVE: Patient-orientated questionnaires are important instruments for the assessment of outcome in the clinical environment and in musculoskeletal research. The objective of this study was to cross-culturally adapt the Patient Rated Elbow Evaluation (PREE) into German (PREE-G) and to test its reliability, validity and psychometric properties.
METHODS: The PREE was cross-culturally adapted for the German language, according to established guidelines. Fifty-six patients who had undergone elbow arthroplasty for osteoarthritis or chronic polyarthritis, on average 11 years previously, were assessed using the PREE-G, the Short Form 36 (SF-36), the Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder, Hand (DASH) and the modified American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (mASES) clinical evaluation.
RESULTS: The test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient) of the PREE-G was 0.80, and the internal consistency 0.96. The PREE-G correlated with the DASH (r = 0.73) and the physical component summary of the SF-36 (r = 0.57) but not with the mental component summary (r = -0.02). The PREE-G correlated moderately with certain clinical findings (mASES) (r = 0.36-0.54; p < 0.01).
CONCLUSION: The PREE-G represents a reliable and valid instrument to evaluate subjective outcome in German speaking patients with elbow pathology.