The Performance of Lower Limb Scale (POLLS) was developed by an international group of clinicians, researchers, and people with lived experience of osteoarthritis.
This page contains information about the development of the POLLS, scoring methods, and contact details.
Development of the POLLS
The POLLS was developed following recommendations from guidelines: a scoping review was conducted to identify potential items:
A discrete choice experiment with 613 participants, with and without osteoarthritis, enabled the estimation of the difficulty and importance of candidate items:
Clinicians, researchers, and lived experience research partners from Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, the United States, Türkiye, and Canada worked together to develop.
The measurement properties of the POLLS have been assessed in people with and without knee osteoarthritis.
Scoring methods for the POLLS
The POLLS has 16 items that are scored dichotomously (pass / fail) by an examiner. Total score ranges from 0 (worst function) to 16 (best function). The 16 items are hierarchically ordered from easiest to hardest. Participants are asked to start with the first item (easiest) and continue with the remaining items until finishing or failing two consecutive items. The final ordinal score is the last completed item; however, scores can be converted to interval scores using a conversion table.
Access the POLLS
The performance-based and self-reported versions of the POLLS can be downloaded via Dropbox:
Contact us about the POLLS
If you have any questions, please contact:
Email ben.darlow@otago.ac.nz