Development of the Work In Progress Questionnaire

What Can I do for my Low Back Pain? The Work In Progress Questionnaire!

The aim of this study is to describe the development of the Work In Progress questionnaire, a tool designed to evaluate commitment in persons, and its psychometric validation process in the context of low back pain.

The study design is cross-sectional.

The following methodology will be applied as for the development of the Work In Progress questionnaire (WIP), a tool designed to evaluate commitment in persons, and its psychometric validation:

1. item generation and selection: the first defines the content of an index and ensures the most important topics are well-thought-out. The second eliminates redundant items, and decreases the number to a total that is feasible to administer while ensuring the scale measures the construct of interest.
2. psychometric analysis: exploratory factor analysis (Cattel Scree Test, Varimax Rotation), reliability (internal consistency by Cronbach's alpha, test-retest reliability by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient 2.1), Measurement error (calculated by multiplying the standard error of measurement (SEM) by the z-score associated with the desired level of confidence (95%, in our case) and the square root of 2), and construct validity by hypothesis testing the correlations (Pearson r) with related measures (Pain Catastrophizing Scale, Oswestry Disability Scale, Numerical pain Rating Scale).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Low Back Pain
• adult age
• reading/speaking Italian.

Exclusion Criteria:

• systemic illness, mental deficits, recent cerebrovascular accidents or myocardial infarctions, chronic lung or renal diseases;
• refusal to adhere.