Physiotherapist's musculoskeletal imaging profiling questionnaire: Development, validation and pilot testing.
Ogochukwu K K Onyeso, Joseph O Umunnah, Peter O Ibikunle and 4 others
PMID 31616801WHAT IT FOUND
A new questionnaire to profile physiotherapists' imaging training and practice showed good reliability for most sections but poor consistency for utilisation questions.
It is suitable for research surveys, not for assessing individual clinical competence.
Key findings
01The questionnaire showed good internal consistency for training, attitude, and competence domains, but poor consistency for the utilisation domain.
02Criterion validity was statistically significant for utilisation and competence domains, correlating with an established instrument.
03Respondents completed the online version in an average of 9.56 minutes, and the instrument was rated as relevant and easy to complete.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The pilot sample was small (31 participants) and recruited via convenient sampling in one region of Nigeria, limiting generalisability to other countries or practice settings. The utilisation domain showed poor internal consistency (α = 0.446), suggesting the questions in this section do not reliably measure a single construct, likely due to varied local hospital policies. The instrument measures self-reported competence and attitudes, which may not align with actual clinical performance or patient outcomes. Criterion validity relied on a comparison instrument whose own psychometric properties were not reported by its original authors.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest or funding sources were explicitly declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use this questionnaire to assess an individual physiotherapist's competence in ordering or interpreting imaging. The utilisation domain failed the internal consistency check, and the study only validated the tool for group-level profiling, not individual certification.