COAP: Caring OA Patients

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, affecting 32.5 million US adults. The high prevalence of OA manifests in enormous societal and personal costs. Pain from OA can result in depression and other mood disturbances, functional disabilities, and work limitations. The overall economic burden of OA in the US is estimated at almost $140 billion annually.
The Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) is a questionnaire designed to assess short and long-term patient-relevant outcomes in knee disorders. It is self-administered questionnaire and assesses five outcomes: pain, symptoms, activities of daily living, sport and recreation function, and knee-related quality of life. KOOS is patient-administered, the format is user-friendly and it takes about 10 minutes to fill out.
Scoring instructions The KOOS's five patient-relevant dimensions are scored separately:
• Pain (nine items)
• Symptoms (seven items)
• ADL Function (17 items)
• Sport and Recreation Function (five items)
• Quality of Life (four items).
A Likert scale is used and all items have five possible answer options scored from 0 (No problems) to 4 (Extreme problems) and each of the five scores is calculated as the sum of the items included.