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Rehabilitation medicine
Original research
Systematic review of the measurement properties of performance-based functional tests in patients with neck disorders
  1. Steven McGee1,
  2. Taylor Sipos1,
  3. Thomas Allin1,
  4. Celia Chen1,
  5. Alexandra Greco1,
  6. Pavlos Bobos1,2,3,
  7. Joy MacDermid1,2,4
  8. CATWAD
    1. 1 School of Physical Therapy, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
    2. 2 Western's Bone and Joint Intitute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
    3. 3 Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    4. 4 School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
    1. Correspondence to Dr Pavlos Bobos; pbobos{at}uwo.ca

    Abstract

    Objectives The purpose of this systematic review is to identify and synthesise studies evaluating performance-based functional outcome measures designed to evaluate the functional abilities of patients with neck pain.

    Design Systematic review.

    Data sources A literature search using PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, EMBASE, COCHRANE, Google Scholar and a citation mapping strategy was conducted until July 2019.

    Eligibility criteria More than half of the study’s patient population had neck pain or a musculoskeletal neck disorder and completed a functional-based test. Clinimetric properties of at least one performance-based functional tests were reported. Both traumatic and non-traumatic origins of neck pain were considered.

    Data extraction and synthesis Relevant data were then extracted from selected articles using an extraction guide. Selected articles were appraised using the Quality Appraisal for Clinical Measurement Research Reports Evaluation Form (QACMRR).

    Results The search obtained 12 articles which reported on four outcome measures (functional capacity evaluations (FCE), Baltimore Therapeutic Equipment Work Simulator II (BTEWS II), Functional Impairment Test-Hand and Neck/Shoulder/Arm (FIT-HaNSA)) and a physiotherapy test package, to assess the functional abilities in patients with mechanical neck pain. Of the selected papers: one reports content validity, five construct validity, four reliability, one sensitivity to change and one both reliability and construct validity. QACMRR scores ranged from 68% to 95%.

    Conclusions This review found very good quality evidence that the FIT-HaNSA has excellent inter and intra-rater reliability and very weak to weak convergent validity. Excellent quality evidence of fair test-retest reliability, weak convergent validity and very weak known groups validity for the BTEWS II test was found. Good to excellent quality evidence exists that an FCE battery has poor to excellent reliability and very weak to strong validity. Good to excellent quality of weak to strong validity and trivial to strong effect sizes were found for a physiotherapy test package.

    Prospero registration number CRD42018112358

    • functional
    • psychometric properties
    • neck
    • cervical
    • outcome measures

    This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

    https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031242

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      Footnotes

      • Twitter @pavlosbob

      • Collaborators CATWAD Co-authors: Michele Sterling m.sterling@uq.edu.au, Anne Söderlund anne.soderlund@mdh.se, Michele Curatolo curatolo@uw.edu, James M Elliott j-elliott@northwestern.edu, David M Walton dwalton5@uwo.ca, Helge Kasch helgkasc@rm.dk, Linda Carroll linda.carroll@ualberta.ca, Hans Westergren Hans.Westergren@skane.se, Samuel A McLean Samuel_McLean@med.unc.edu, Gwendolen Jull g.jull@uq.edu.au, Genevieve Grant genevieve.grant@monash.edu, Luke Connelly l.connelly@uq.edu.au, Joy C MacDermid jmacderm@uwo.ca, Mandy Nielsen mandy.nielsen@griffith.edu.au, Pierre Côté pierre.cote@uoit.ca, Tonny Elmose Andersen tandersen@health.sdu.dk, Trudy Rebbeck trudy.rebbeck@sydney.edu.au, Annick Maujean a.maujean@uq.edu.au, Sarah Robins s.robins1@uq.edu.au, Kenneth Chen k.chen8@uq.edu.au, Julia Treleaven j.treleaven@uq.edu.au

      • Contributors SM contributed significantly to conception and design of the study, data extraction, critical appraisal, interpretation of data and drafting of the manuscript. TS, TA, PB and CC were involved in literature search, critical appraisal and interpretation of data and drafting. AG was involved in critical appraisal and drafting. JM was also involved in the conception and design of the study, drafting and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. PB and CATWAD were involved in the drafting and review of the manuscript. All authors have given their final approval on the manuscript to be published.

      • Funding This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) with funding reference number (FRN: SCA-145102).

      • Competing interests None declared.

      • Patient consent for publication Not required.

      • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

      • Data availability statement No data are available.