Administering the Routine Activities domain of the Oxford Participation and Activities Questionnaire as a stand-alone scale: the Oxford Routine Activities Measure

Abstract

Background

The recently validated Oxford Participation and Activities Questionnaire (Ox-PAQ) is a 23-item patient-reported outcome measure, theoretically grounded in the World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. The measure is specifically designed to assess participation and activity in people experiencing a range of health conditions. Initial validation of the Ox-PAQ identified three domains: Routine Activities (14 items), Emotional Well-Being (5 items), and Social Engagement (4 items). The purpose of the analysis reported here was to assess whether the Routine Activities domain of Ox-PAQ could be validated for use as a stand-alone measure without compromising its psychometric integrity.

Methods

Three hundred and seventy-three patients with a diagnosis of either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, multiple sclerosis, or Parkinson’s disease were administered the Ox-PAQ in an online survey. The 14 items of the Routine Activities domain of the Ox-PAQ were subject to factor analytic techniques and assessed for reliability and validity.

Results

Three hundred and forty-one patients fully completed the survey, a completion rate of 91.4%. The 14 items loaded onto one single factor with an eigenvalue of 9.29 explaining 66.35% of variance. Reliability was confirmed through corrected item-total correlations ranging from 0.880 to 0.594 and a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.96. Validity was demonstrated through significant differences in scores between the three disease groups assessed.

Conclusion

Results indicate that the Ox-PAQ Routine Activities domain can be legitimately adopted as a stand-alone measure, the Oxford Routine Activities Measure, where researchers wish to focus primarily on the activity component of the Ox-PAQ. It should, however, be emphasized that where a full assessment of all areas of activity and participation highlighted as important during the development of the Ox-PAQ is required, all three domains of the full measure should be administered.

Keywords:

• routine activities
• factor structure
• reliability
• validity

Acknowledgments

Development and validation of the Ox-PAQ were funded by the European Brain Council. We would also like to thank Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd for an unrestricted educational research grant, which was used to support part of this work.

The analysis reported here was presented at the 23rd Annual Conference of the International Society for Quality of Life Research, Copenhagen, Denmark, October 19–22, 2016 and was published in Quality of Life Research, Volume 25, Supplement 1.

Author contributions

All authors contributed toward data analysis, drafting and critically revising the paper, gave final approval of the version to be published, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

All authors are developers of the Ox-PAQ and will receive royalties from its use in commercial contexts. All authors have also undertaken consultancy work for Oxford Univer sity Innovation Ltd which holds the license for the Ox-PAQ. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.