Multiple Imputation to Salvage Partial Respondents

Missing responses are common when Asian patients complete the Forgotten Joint Score-12 (FJS-12), which is widely used to evaluate total hip arthroplasty (THA). We aimed to provide orthopaedic researchers with a solution for handling missing values in such patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).Patients who had undergone primary THA between 1998 and 2016 (n = 1,021) were investigated in 2020. The FJS-12 and 9 other PROMs, including questions related to Asian lifestyle activities, were administered. Risk factors for missing FJS-12 items were investigated. Partial respondents were matched with complete respondents; then, in each pair, the items not completed by the partial respondent were deleted from the responses of the complete respondent. Predictive mean matching (PMM) was performed in an attempt to recover the deleted items, using 65 sets of imputation models. After the missing values had been imputed, we explored patient characteristics that affected the FJS-12, using data from all complete and partial respondents.A total of 652 patients responded to the survey (393 complete and 193 partial respondents). Partial respondents were older, more often female, and less active. Older respondents were more likely to skip items involving the bed, while those who reported a better ability to sit in the seiza style (traditional Japanese floor sitting) were more likely to skip items about chair sitting. The imputed FJS-12 value exhibited excellent reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient for agreement with the true scores, 0.985). FJS-12 values of complete respondents were significantly higher than those of respondents with 4 to 11 missing items (51.6 versus 32.8, p < 0.001). Older age was associated with higher FJS-12 values, which was revealed only via analysis of the multiply imputed data sets (p < 0.001).Analysis of only complete FJS-12 responses after THA resulted in a nonresponse bias, preferentially excluding older, female, and less active individuals and those with a traditional floor living style. Multiple imputation could provide a solution to scoring and analyzing PROMs with missing responses by permitting the inclusion of partial respondents.Therapeutic Level III . See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.