The Forgotten Joint Scores comprise measures for the assessment of joint-specific patient-reported outcome (PRO). These PRO questionnaires focus on patients’ awareness of a specific joint in everyday life. Joint awareness can be simply defined as any unintended perception of a joint. This may include strong sensations like pain, but also includes more subtle feelings like mild stiffness, subjective dysfunction, or any discomfort. Generally, joint awareness comes with a negative connotation as healthy joints do not cause ‘awareness’ in daily life – and are essentially ‘forgotten’.

The forgotten joint concept is a more discerning construct and has shown better discriminatory power and less ceiling effect compared to traditional questionnaires measuring pain or function. This is especially appealing in more active patients with good to excellent outcome. The Forgotten Joint Scores allow to pick up subtle differences between patients and follow-up time points.