Journal Article

Validation of the German version of the STarT-MSK-Tool: A cohort study with patients from physiotherapy clinics

Zebisch, Jochen, Karstens, Sven, Hill, Jonathan C., Wey, Johannes, Hilfiker, Roger

2022

Overview

The STarT-MSK-Tool is an adaptation of the well established STarT-Back-Tool, used to risk-stratify patients with a wider range of musculoskeletal presentations. To formally translate and cross-culturally adapt the Keele STarT-MSK risk stratification tool into German (STarT-MSKG) and to establish its reliability and validity. A formal, multi-step, forward and backward translation approach was used. To assess validity patients aged ≥18 years, with acute, subacute or chronic musculoskeletal presentations in the lumbar spine, hip, knee, shoulder, or neck were included. The prospective cohort was used with initial data collected electronically at the point-of-consultation. Retest and 6-month follow-up questionnaires were sent by email. Test-retest reliability, construct validity, discriminative ability, predictive ability and floor or ceiling effects were analysed using intraclass correlation coefficient, and comparisons with a reference standard (Orebro-Musculoskeletal-Pain-Questionnaire: OMPQ) using correlations, ROC-curves and regression models. The participants' (n = 287) mean age was 47 (SD = 15.8) years, 51% were female, with 48.8% at low, 43.6% at medium, and 7.7% at high risk. With ICC = 0.75 (95% CI 0.69; 0.81) test-retest-reliability was good. Construct validity was good with correlations for the STarT-MSKG-Tool against the OMPQ-Tool of rs = 0.74 (95% CI 0.68, 0.79). The ability of the tool [comparison OMPQ] to predict 6-month pain and disability was acceptable with AUC = 0.77 (95% CI 0.71, 0.83) [OMPQ = 0.74] and 0.76 (95% CI 0.69, 0.82) [OMPQ = 0.72] respectively. However, the explained variance (linear/logistic regression) for predicting 6-month pain (21% [OMPQ = 17%]/logistic = 29%) and disability (linear = 20%:[OMPQ = 19%]/logistic = 26%), whilst being comparable to the existing OMPQ reference standard, fell short of the a priori target of ≥30%. The German version of the STarT-MSK-Tool is a valid instrument for use across multiple musculoskeletal conditions and is availabe for use in clinical practice. Comparison with the OMPQ suggests it is a good alternative.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adaptation / Adolescent / Adult / Arthritis / Back pain / Biology and Life Sciences / Cohort analysis / Cohort Studies / Correlation / Correlation coefficient / Correlation coefficients / Diagnosis / Evaluation / Female / Health risks / Humans / Interpreters / Low Back Pain / Male / Medical equipment / Medical prognosis / Medicine and Health Sciences / Methods / Middle Aged / Musculoskeletal diseases / Musculoskeletal Pain / Osteoarthritis / Pain / Patients / Physical therapy / Physical Therapy Modalities / Physiological apparatus / Primary care / Prognosis / Prospective Studies / Questionnaires / Regression analysis / Regression models / Reliability / Reproducibility of Results / Risk / Social Sciences / Spine / Spine (lumbar) / Therapeutics, Physiological / Translations / Validation studies / Validity