THE INTERNAL CONSISTENCY AND VALIDITY OF THE PATIENT EVALUATION MEASURE FOR OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT IN DISTAL RADIUS FRACTURES

The internal consistency and validity of the Patient Evaluation Measure (PEM) was investigated in the setting of the distal radius fracture by assessing 200 patients 6 to 42 years after injury using the PEM and DASH questionnaires and objective measures of outcome. The PEM was completed separately for both the injured and uninjured wrist. We found highly significant correlations between the PEM and objective measures and, also, between the PEM and DASH scores. We also calculated a comparative PEM score by subtracting the score of the uninjured wrist from that of the injured side, to eliminate the effect of co-existing disease. This score was more strongly correlated with outcome than the PEM alone. We suggest that the PEM is a valid method of assessing distal radial fracture outcome. It may, also, be used to reduce the effect of symptoms from coexisting bilaterally represented pathologies.