Screening for elevated levels of fear-avoidance beliefs regarding work or physical activities in people receiving outpatient therapy.

The purpose of this study was to develop efficient yet accurate screening methods for identifying elevated levels of fear-avoidance beliefs regarding work or physical activities in people receiving outpatient rehabilitation. Intake Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) data were collected from 17,804 people who had common neuromusculoskeletal conditions and were receiving outpatient rehabilitation.  Three items for fear of physical activities and 10 items for fear of work activities represented unidimensional scales with adequate IRT model fit. Differential item functioning was negligible for variables known to affect functional status outcomes: sex, age, symptom acuity, surgical history, pain intensity, condition severity, and impairment. Items that provided maximum information at the median for the FABQ scales were selected as screening items to dichotomize subjects by high versus low levels of fear. The accuracy of the screening items was supported for both scales.

The lack of differential item functioning in the FABQ scales in the sample tested in this study suggested that FABQ screening could be useful in routine clinical practice and allowed the development of single-item screening for fear-avoidance beliefs that accurately identified subjects with elevated levels of fear. Because screening was accurate and efficient, single IRT-based FABQ screening items are recommended to facilitate improved evaluation and care of heterogeneous populations of people receiving outpatient rehabilitation.

Hart DL, Werneke MW, George SZ, Matheson JW, Wang YC, Cook KF, Mioduski JE, Choi SW.  Screening for elevated levels of fear-avoidance beliefs regarding work or physical activities in people receiving outpatient therapy. Phys Ther. 2009 Aug;89(8):770-85