Initial Development and Validation of Physical Therapy-Patient Education Questionnaire (PT-PEQ)

Patient education can increase patient engagement and positive outcomes with physical therapy treatment. This study aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a physical therapy patient education questionnaire.

Candidate items were developed and evaluated by an expert panel for content validity. The resulting items were administered to 350 patients in physical therapy treatment, and the reliability and validity of the scale's subscales were evaluated.

The final version of the questionnaire consists of 36 items that assess six education domains for patients receiving physical therapy: 1) assessment and information provision (10 items), 2) hygiene and safety (9 items), 3) patient empowerment (8 items), 4) emergency and infection control (3 items), 5) adverse event prevention (4 items), and 6) identity confirmation (2 items). The internal consistency of the subscales ranged from 0.69 to 0.92, and support for the six-domain structure of the items was supported via factor analysis.

The questionnaire was successfully developed and evidenced good psychometric properties for the assessment of the perceived importance of six physical therapy education domains. Research is needed to evaluate potential gaps between patients' perceived education needs and therapist education activities during physical therapy treatment.