Development and validation of a military fear avoidance questionnaire.
Carly Cooper, Bruce Frey, Charles Day
PMID 36262915WHAT IT FOUND
A new questionnaire helps Army clinicians spot fear avoidance in soldiers with musculoskeletal pain.
It reliably tracks these concerns in a military context, offering a practical tool to guide early rehabilitation and reduce pain-related disability.
Key findings
01The questionnaire showed high reliability and acceptable correlation with an existing fear avoidance scale.
02Items were tailored to military vocabulary and duties through expert panels and soldier feedback.
03The tool is intended to help clinicians identify patients who need specific referrals or education.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study did not include a pain measure, so it is unclear how pain intensity influences the scores. Data collection occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and a change in fitness tests, which may have affected how soldiers interpreted questions about duty and readiness. The validation was limited to one Army installation, so results may not apply to other military populations or settings. The tool has not yet been tested for responsiveness, meaning we do not know if scores change as patients improve.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest or funding sources were explicitly declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this questionnaire predicts actual recovery speed or return-to-duty timelines. The study only showed that the tool measures fear avoidance reliably; it did not test whether high scores correlate with longer time off duty or worse outcomes.