The Oxford Participation and Activities Questionnaire: study protocol

Background: With an ageing population and increasing demands on health and social care services, there is growing importance attached to the management of long-term conditions, including maximizing the cost-effectiveness of treatments. In line with this, there is increasing emphasis on the need to keep people both active and participating in daily life. Consequently, it is essential that well developed and validated instruments that can meaningfully assess levels of participation and activity are widely available. Current measures, however, are largely focused on disability and rehabilitation, and there is no measure of activity or participation for generic use that fully meets the standards set by regulatory bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration. Here we detail a protocol for the development and validation of a new patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) for assessment of participation and activity in people experiencing a variety of health conditions, ie, the Oxford Participation and Activities Questionnaire (Ox-PAQ). The stages incorporated in its development are entirely in line with current regulations and represent best practice in the development of PROMs.

Methods: Development of the Ox-PAQ is theoretically grounded in the World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. The project incorporates a new strategy of engaging with stakeholders from the outset in an attempt to identify those characteristics of PROMs considered most important to a range of potential users. Items will be generated through interviews with patients from a range of conditions. Pretesting of the instrument will be via cognitive interviews and focus groups. A postal survey will be conducted, with data subject to factor and Rasch analysis in order to identify appropriate dimensions and redundant items. Reliability will be assessed by Cronbach's alpha and item-total correlations. A second, large-scale postal survey will follow, with the Ox-PAQ being administered in conjunction with generic measures of health status to further test the validity of the measure. The Ox-PAQ will again be administered at 2 weeks to assess test-retest reliability and at 3 months to assess responsiveness.

Conclusion: The development of the Ox-PAQ is a timely one. With increasing emphasis being placed on the importance of keeping people active and participating in daily life, the instrument has the potential for significant uptake. Its primary use is intended to be in clinical trials and for evaluation of interventions targeted at maintaining activity and participation.