The Patient Participation in Rehabilitation Questionnaire (PPRQ): psychometric evaluation and revision for use in neurological rehabilitation

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Patient Participation in Rehabilitation Questionnaire (PPRQ) in neurological rehabilitation using statistical methods taking the ordinal nature of data into account.

Methods: A cross-sectional postal questionnaire study was conducted. In total, 522 patients from a neurological rehabilitation unit completed the 32-item version of the PPRQ. The PPRQ comprises five scales and assesses patients’ experiences of participation in their rehabilitation. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the factor structure according to the hypothetical five-scale model. Internal consistency reliability was evaluated by ordinal α, and test–retest reliability was evaluated by weighted kappa statistics and intraclass correlations (ICC).

Results: After omitting 12 items, a 20-item version with the five hypothetical scales showed acceptable fit for the PPRQ (RMSEA = 0.067, CFI = 0.983, TLI = 0.979). For each scale, both internal consistency and test–retest reliability were good to excellent (ordinal α = 0.88–0.93, ICC = 0.83–0.90).

Conclusions: The revised version of the PPRQ shows sound psychometric properties and is a potential questionnaire for the evaluation of patients’ experiences of participation in neurological rehabilitation. The PPRQ can provide insight into central aspects that are crucial for the patients’ participation, namely Respect and integrity, Planning and decision-making, Information and knowledge, Motivation and encouragement, and Involvement of family.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Patient participation in rehabilitation is a multidimensional concept that can be assessed by the revised Patient Participation in Rehabilitation Questionnaire (PPRQ).

• The revised PPRQ shows sound psychometric properties for persons undergone neurological rehabilitation.

• The revised PPRQ still covers five central aspects of patient participation: Respect and integrity, Planning and decision-making, Information and knowledge, Motivation and encouragement, and Involvement of family.

• Assessments with the revised PPRQ can provide insight into the patients’ experiences of central aspects that are crucial for participation in their own rehabilitation.

Keywords:

• Patient-centred care
• self-report
• surveys and questionnaires
• psychometrics

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Norrbacka-Eugenia stiftelsen, the University of Gothenburg Centre for Person-centred Care, and Wilhelm & Martina Lundgrens Vetenskapsfond.