Published online Aug 18, 2016. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v7.i8.507
Peer-review started: February 18, 2016
First decision: March 25, 2016
Revised: May 8, 2016
Accepted: June 1, 2016
Article in press: June 3, 2016
Published online: August 18, 2016
Processing time: 183 Days and 16.8 Hours
AIM: To validate the culturally-adapted Persian Functional Rating Index (PFRI) for assessing neck pain (NP) in athletes.
METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 100 athletes with NP and 50 healthy athletes participated and responded to the PFRI. Fifty athletes with NP completed the PFRI for at least 7 d later to establish test-retest reliability.
RESULTS: The athletes with NP responded to all items, indicating excellent clinical utility. No floor and ceiling effects were found, indicating content validity and responsiveness. The PFRI revealed capability to discriminate between the athletes with NP and healthy athletes. The PFRI demonstrated strong correlation with the Numerical Rating Scale (Spearman’s rho = 0.94), and the Persian Neck Disability Index (Pearson r = 0.995), supporting criterion and construct validity. Internal consistency reliability was high (Cronbach’s α coefficient: 0.97). The test-retest reliability was excellent (ICCagreement = 0.96). The absolute reliability values of standard error of measurement and smallest detectable change were 3.2 and 8.84, respectively. An exploratory factor analysis yielded one factor explaining 78.03% of the total variance.
CONCLUSION: The PFRI is a valid and reliable measure of functional status in athletes with NP.
Core tip: Patient-reported outcomes are widely used to evaluate the functional effectiveness of treatments in clinical investigations. There has been a lack of patient-reported outcome measure for athletes with neck pain (NP). This study assessed the psychometric properties of the culturally-adapted Persian Functional Rating Index in a group of athletes with NP and demonstrated excellent validity and reliability.