Physiotherapy Questionnaires App to Deliver Main Musculoskeletal Assessment Questionnaires: Development and...

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Musculoskeletal Disorders
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Traditional paper-based patient-reported outcomes (PROs) present challenges in data analysis and management within clinical settings.
• The Physiotherapy Questionnaires app was developed to overcome these limitations for musculoskeletal disorder assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail the development of the Physiotherapy Questionnaires app.
• To validate the app's accuracy using the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS) and American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) questionnaires.
• To assess patient preference between the app and paper-based questionnaires.

Main Methods:

• Developed an Android application incorporating 18 commonly used musculoskeletal questionnaires.
• Validated the app using the FAOS and AOFAS, with 50 participants completing both paper and app versions for each.
• Analyzed data correlation between versions and participant preference.

Main Results:

• The app demonstrated high validity, with no statistically significant differences compared to paper versions for both FAOS and AOFAS.
• Excellent agreement was observed between app and paper versions (ICC values of 0.98 for FAOS and 0.99 for AOFAS).
• High compliance rates favored the app, with 72% of FAOS participants and 94% of AOFAS participants preferring the digital format.

Conclusions:

• The Physiotherapy Questionnaires app is a valid, feasible, and preferred alternative to paper-based PROs in musculoskeletal care.
• The app's ability to generate data files enhances its utility in clinical practice.
• It offers a practical solution for managing and analyzing patient-reported outcomes in physiotherapy.