Body Awareness Rating Questionnaire: Measurement properties

Abstract

The purpose of present study was to investigate important measurement properties of the Body Awareness Rating Questionnaire (BARQ) subscales: Function; Mood; Feelings; and Awareness. Samples of 50 patients with prolonged musculoskeletal pain and psychosomatic disorders, and 50 gender and age-matched healthy persons participated in the study. Relative (ICC 2,1) and absolute reliability (S_w) were calculated. Construct validity was examined by testing hypothesis using Pearson (r) or Spearman rank (r_s) correlation. Discriminate ability was examined using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the area under the curve (aROC) being the measure of discriminative validity. All patients reported more or less improvement after treatment, using the Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) as an external indicator of important change. Responsiveness to important change was therefore examined by one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), relating change scores of BARQ subscales to the PGIC categories. Relative and absolute reliability values were within recommended limits for all four subscales. Construct and discriminate validity was indicated for Function, Feelings and Awareness, but not for Mood. Responsiveness was indicated for the subscales Function and Awareness, but not for Feelings and Mood. Further research is needed to complement the subscales of BARQ, found with appropriate measurement properties.

Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to the physiotherapists at Strandgaten and Fortunen Physioterapy, and give special thanks to Heidi Ann Fiske, Lars Sætre and Solveig H Iversen for their assistance in recruiting patients.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no declarations of interest.

The study was supported by the Norwegian Fund for Postgraduate training in Physiotherapy.