Article

Background: The Pelvic Girdle Questionnaire (PGQ) is a condition-specific measure
for women with pelvic girdle pain (PGP). The PGQ includes items relating to
activity/participation and bodily symptoms and has reliability, validity, and
feasibility for use in research and clinical practice. Objective: The purposes of
this study were to examine the responsiveness of the PGQ, to determine the
minimal important change (MIC) for the PGQ, and to compare the PGQ with other
outcome measures. This study used a prospective cohort design. Methods: A
total of 801 women responded to a booklet of questionnaires in the last trimester
of their pregnancy and within 3 months post partum. Responsiveness analyses
followed recommendations from the Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of
Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) checklist. The responsiveness of the PGQ
was tested by examining correlations between the change scores of the total PGQ
and the other patient-reported outcome measures. Results: A total of 606 women
(76%) reported PGP, low back pain, or both. Of these women, 441 (73%) responded
to the follow-up questionnaire post partum. The PGQ (both subscale and total
scores) discriminated most accurately between participants who improved and those
who did not improve, with an area under the receiver operator characteristic
curve of 72%. The MIC values indicated that a change score smaller than 25 for
the total score and activity subscale score and a change score of 20 for the
symptom subscale score should be regarded as insignificant. Baseline PGQ scores
had a large impact on the MIC estimates for the absolute change scores but not on
the relative percentage change scores. Five of 6 hypotheses were supported (83%).
Limitations: The type of anchor and definition of important change used might be
weaknesses in women whose status is changing from pregnant to post partum.
Conclusions: The PGQ showed acceptable responsiveness in women with PGP, low back
pain, or both.

Langue : ANGLAIS