MEASURING FUNCTIONAL LIMITATIONS IN RISING AND SITTING DOWN - DEVELOPMENT OF A QUESTIONNAIRE

Objective: Develop and test a self-administered questionnaire that mea sures perceived and actual functional limitations in rising and sittin g down. Setting: Private practices for physical therapy and outpatient clinics of hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Patients: 345 outpat ients (43% male, aged 14 to 92 years) with different grades of functio nal limitations and different types of lower extremity orthopedic or r heumatologic disorders. Methods: The Questionnaire Rising and Sitting Down (QR&S) was developed on the basis of a literature review and care ful operationalization of functional limitations. Five dimensions conc erning different objects (high chair, low chair, toilet, bed, and car) and one global dimension were postulated to be contained in the instr ument. Mokken scale analysis was used to test the postulated dimension s (scalability coefficient H). Furthermore, robustness with respect to patient characteristics was determined, as well as intratest reliabil ity (reliability coefficient Rho), test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]), content validity (coverage of operati onalized aspects), and construct validity (testing of seven hypotheses ). Results: Mokken scale analysis confirmed the existence of 5 object dimensions (H = .53-.59). However, two global dimensions were found (H = .50-.54). The resulting hierarchical scales, consisting of subsets of the 32 final QR&S items, are robust and measure functional limitati ons in a reliable (Rho .77-.91; ICC .72-.90) and valid (3 out of 4 asp ects covered, 2 hypotheses rejected for 3 out of 7 scales) manner. Con clusion: The QR&S is a reliable and valid self-administered questionna ire. It consists of hierarchical scales and measures perceived and act ual functional limitations in rising and sitting down. (C) 1996 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation