ABSTRACT Background:

The Children's Hospital Oakland Hip Evaluation Scale is a disease-specific tool for the clinical and functional assessment of the hip in sickle cell disease.

Objectives:

To translate the tool into Brazilian Portuguese and evaluate the interobserver and test-retest reliability.

Methods:

Eighteen patients diagnosed with sickle cell disease and a mean age of 49 ± 11.9 years participated in the study. The scale was applied by two evaluators who did not speak to each other regarding their understanding of the tool and who had no prior training. Interobserver and test-retest reliability of individual items and of the total score were evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient and the Bland-Altman method.

Results:

When the overall score for each hip was considered, the test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient score for the right hip was 0.95 (0.89-0.98) and for the left hip it was 0.96 (0.91-0.98). Considering all assignments (total score), the score was 0.96 (0.90-0.98). The test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient varied from 0.76 to 1 for 18 of the 27 items (excellent) and from 0.53 to 0.75 for nine items (moderate). When the overall score for each hip was considered, the interobserver intraclass correlation coefficient for both hips was 0.94 (0.86-0.98). Considering all assignments, the total score was 0.94 (0.86-0.98). The interobserver intraclass correlation coefficient varied from 0.48 to 0.75 for 18 out of 27 items (moderate) and varied from 0.77 to 1 for the remaining nine items (excellent).

Conclusion:

The results demonstrate that the Brazilian version of the Children's Hospital Oakland Hip Evaluation Scale presented adequate interobserver and test-retest reliability and that the version can be used to evaluate clinical function in sickle cell disease patients, producing consistent, standardized and reproducible results.