Table 3

Internal consistency of the MSK-HQ at baseline and retest

	Baseline, n=537			Retest, n=376			Baseline and retest
Item	Mean (SD)	r_item-rest	α=	Mean (SD)	r_item-rest	α=	N	Kendall's W
MSK-HQ Total (0, 56)			0.88			0.92	358	0.91
1. Pain/stiffness during the day	1.52 (0.91)	0.69	0.87	1.71 (0.89)	0.76	0.91	379	0.83
2. Pain/stiffness at night	1.65 (1.09)	0.60	0.87	1.96 (1.12)	0.65	0.92	379	0.87
3. Walking	2.11 (1.16)	0.57	0.88	2.23 (1.18)	0.69	0.91	380	0.89
4. Washing/dressing	2.77 (1.02)	0.60	0.87	2.89 (0.97)	0.64	0.92	382	0.86
5. Physical activity levels	1.52 (1.14)	0.56	0.88	1.72 (1.29)	0.70	0.91	379	0.83
6. Work/daily routine	1.81 (1.03)	0.76	0.87	2.11 (1.04)	0.81	0.91	381	0.83
7. Social activities and hobbies	1.80 (1.11)	0.63	0.87	2.09 (1.17)	0.74	0.91	381	0.82
8. Needing help	2.62 (1.21)	0.65	0.87	2.70 (1.19)	0.73	0.91	380	0.88
9. Sleep	1.73 (1.28)	0.56	0.88	1.97 (1.35)	0.60	0.92	382	0.90
10. Fatigue or low energy	2.22 (1.08)	0.63	0.87	2.27 (1.07)	0.71	0.91	381	0.87
11. Emotional well-being	2.47 (1.16)	0.64	0.87	2.65 (1.12)	0.70	0.91	382	0.84
12. Understanding condition	2.60 (1.10)	−0.04	0.90	2.95 (0.80)	0.10	0.93	379	0.72
13. Confidence in managing	2.39 (0.99)	0.32	0.89	2.50 (0.94)	0.41	0.92	382	0.72
14. Overall impact	1.42 (0.88)	0.74	0.87	1.59 (0.96)	0.79	0.91	381	0.82

n is the number of individuals with complete scales.
r_item-rest is the correlation between an item and the scale that is formed by all other items.
α=Cronbach's α of the scale excluding all but one of the items, except where ‘Total’ indicates Cronbach's α for complete scale.