Research published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, British Volume, describes the development and testing of the Oxford ankle foot questionnaire. The new technique assesses the disability associated with foot and ankle problems in children 5 to 16 years old.
The Oxford ankle foot questionnaire for children was developed because ‘currently, there is no family-assessed instrument that can measure how children’s lives are specifically affected by foot and ankle problems.’ the researchers said.
The questionnaire has been developed for use with children with a number of conditions and provides clinicially useful information to supplement other assessment methods. The testing of the questionnaire was conducted by families of 158 children, of which 142 were, at least in part, child-completed. As with other similar questionnaires there was some variance between answers supplied by parents and children, however, while the scores did not correlate perfectly…they rate extremely favourably in comparison with child-parent reliability in other instruments.
The results showed that the questionnaire ‘offers a means to measure the effects of foot and ankle conditions in children using issues that are considered important by children’ and the questionnaire is now available for use in research and clinical practice with children in the described age group.
Read the full text article and view the questionnaire.
[Source: Medical News Today]
