Background:

degenerative joint diseases of the lower limb have a high prevalence especially those that affect the knee joint. To evaluate the treatment modalities used, scales are used that are originated in other countries.

Objective:

to validate an evaluation instrument with modifications adapted to the national context.

Methods:

a development investigation was carried out to address the modification and validation of the The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scale in the evaluation of patients with primary gonarthrosis; at the Manuel Ascunce Domenech University Hospital in the city of Camagüey in the period from September 2018 to January 2019.

Results:

the validation was carried out through an initial process that included the translation into Spanish language and cultural translation, experts consultation, techniques and procedures broken down into five steps such as: definition and characterization of the object of study, selection of indicators, definition of the scale, construction of items and evaluative form of the instrument. To explore the validity the following components were defined: appearance, content based on Moriyama criteria, construct and criterion validity. For the modification and validation of the scale, the data was obtained from primary sources, which produced a database; in statistical processing, summary measures (average and standard deviation), Pearson's linear correlation, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and factor analysis were used with the help of the SPSS 25.0 statistical package for Windows.

Conclusions:

the reliability and validity of the demonstrated modified scale makes it very useful for the evaluation of patients with primary gonarthrosis.

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