The Revised Body Awareness Rating Questionnaire: Development Into a Unidimensional Scale Using Rasch Analysis.

Area of Science:

• Psychometrics
• Rehabilitation Science
• Musculoskeletal Pain Management

Background:

• The original Body Awareness Rating Questionnaire (BARQ) assessed body awareness in musculoskeletal pain but had questionable construct validity due to uncorrelated subscales.
• Classical test theory methods were used in the initial BARQ development, yielding four subscales.
• Limitations in the original BARQ's structure necessitated further investigation into its psychometric properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a unidimensional scale from existing BARQ items using Rasch analysis.
• To assess the test-retest reliability of a refined BARQ version.
• To enhance the measurement of body awareness in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Main Methods:

• A two-step Rasch analysis was conducted on data from participants with long-lasting musculoskeletal pain.
• Initial Rasch analysis used 66 items and 300 participants; a second analysis refined items with 127 participants.
• Test-retest reliability was evaluated using the revised BARQ in 48 participants over one week.

Main Results:

• A unidimensional, 12-item revised BARQ was developed, demonstrating good fit to the Rasch model.
• The revised BARQ exhibited acceptable internal consistency, satisfactory fit residuals, and no disordered thresholds.
• High test-retest reliability was confirmed with an intraclass correlation coefficient of .83.

Conclusions:

• The revised BARQ is a unidimensional and feasible measure of body awareness.
• The study recommends the revised BARQ for use in body-mind physical therapy for musculoskeletal conditions.
• The findings support the enhanced psychometric properties of the revised BARQ for clinical and research applications.