Development of the Occupational Activities Knee Scale.

A primary concern of many knee surgery patients is their ability to return to work following surgery, but it is often difficult to predict the practicality of returning due to a job's unclear knee demands. A cross-sectional study of employed patients and general population participants was conducted. Study participants were asked if their job required nine separate tasks and if their job had low, moderate, or high physical demands. The relative risk of each task placing high demands on the knee was calculated, and those risk ratios were summated to calculate a scaled score. The scaled score accurately distinguishes the levels of job demands with each reported level of job demands having a significantly higher mean scaled score than the level below it (p < 0.0001). The Occupational Activities Knee Scale offers occupational and health care providers greater precision in comparing the physical requirements of jobs for knee surgery patients.