According to a recent report published in the “journal of clinical rheumatology”, ambulation adjusted score for knee pain (AASK) was found to be a simple and reliable tool to validate symptom measure for knee OA patients.

Validating the symptoms that consider pain regarding the activity level may present a better distinction than pain alone. This study involved a comparison of sensitivity to change for radiographic progression between Western Ontario McMaster Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) knee pain score and Ambulation Adjusted Score for Knee pain (AASK) which considers for self-described ambulation.

Participants of the analysis were evaluated for four years using the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) ambulation, knee radiographs, and WOMAC. The AASK was defined by using the formula - ((WOMAC pain) + 1)/ ((average daily hours of walking) + 1). Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grade was used to score radiographs. The associations between WOMAC pain, KL grade over time and AASK were found by applying linear regression, stratified by the OA status.

A total of 4191 people with 28.6 BMI and of mean age 61.2 years old participated in the analysis. Above 40% of knees exhibited WOMAC pain scores of 0; by design, no knees presented AASK scores of 0. AASK annual changes were more sensitive to KL changes than WOMAC changes among those without baseline OA.