Article

PURPOSE: To investigate the psychometric properties of the Working Alliance
Inventory Theory of Change Inventory (WATOCI) in physical rehabilitation.
METHODS: RASCH analysis was used to examine the validity, internal consistency,
reliability and discriminative properties of the 16-item WATOCI. Data was
obtained from a randomized controlled trial, which employed the WATOCI to measure
the alliance between physical therapists and patients with chronic low back pain.
RESULTS: The results indicated that 7 items on the 16-item WATOCI should need to
be improved for use in physiotherapy settings. The resulting 9-item version of
the WATOCI was found to be a uni-dimensional tool for measuring alliance,
however, demonstrated a ceiling effect. CONCLUSIONS: There are several items in
the WATOCI that require re-wording and/or re-contextualization prior to its use
in clinical practice. Specifically, items relating more to the element social
interaction did not discriminate well in this population and one solution may be
to provide a therapy-specific context. Items regarding how well the patient
understood the purpose of the treatment discriminated best between patients and
this area is recommended for further development in the tool's assessment. It is
recommended that future research address these issues prior to its use in
clinical settings.

Langue : ANGLAIS