Critical Care Functional Rehabilitation Outcome Measure: developing a validated measure

In 2009, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) developed guidelines, which recognized that rehabilitation plays a vital role in recovery from illness and in returning patients to their previous activity levels. NICE recommended the use of valid and reliable "outcome measures" as an evaluation tool.

To develop and evaluate the validity and reliability of a new Critical Care Functional Rehabilitation Outcome Measure (CcFROM).

The CcFROM was developed by physiotherapists working within the authors' institution and was based on an evaluation of current measures. Face and content validity were investigated using a questionnaire posted to 21 physiotherapists. Same-day and between-day intra-rater reliability and inter-rater reliability were investigated by three physiotherapists viewing 20 physiotherapy rehabilitation sessions and completing the CcFROM. Data were analysed for relative and absolute reliability.

The questionnaire demonstrated very high face validity and moderate content validity. 43% of the physiotherapists also suggested including an upper limb activity. Clinically acceptable same-day and between-day intra-rater reliability was demonstrated with ICCs of 0.985 (CI, 0.968-0.993) and 0.985 (CI, 0.871-0.972), respectively. Inter-rater reliability was recorded with an ICC of 0.906 (CI: 0.816-0.959).

This study has shown that the CcFROM is a valid and reliable outcome measure for use in Critical Care.