Jeanine A. Verbunt, Ivan P.J. Huijnen and Albere Köke
The objectives of this study was to identify instruments assessing the level of physical activity in daily life in patients with musculoskeletal pain and to review psychometric properties of the instruments identified. In all, 42 articles derived from the literature on musculoskeletal pain were included in the review. Thirty four assessment instruments for physical activity were identified; fourteen questionnaires, ten diaries and ten instruments based on movement registration. Only, 10 out of these 34 instruments contained full or partial information regarding pain specific psychometric properties.
At this moment, for quantitative assessment of physical activity, movement registration seems to be favoured based on its higher degree of objectivity in comparison with self report. Taken together more research is needed to evaluate psychometric properties of instruments measuring physical activity in musculoskeletal pain.
European Journal of Pain, 2009, 13(3), 231-242