title: Development and validation of a questionnaire to measure the severity of functional limitations and reduction of sports ability in German-speaking patients with exercise-induced leg pain.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Currently, there is no generally agreed measure available to quantify a subject's perceived severity of exercise-induced leg pain symptoms. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire that measures the severity of symptoms that impact on function and sports ability in patients with exercise-induced leg pain.
  
  
  METHODS
  The exercise-induced leg pain questionnaire for German-speaking patients (EILP-G) was developed in five steps: (1) initial item generation, (2) item reduction, (3) pretesting, (4) expert meeting and (5) validation. The resulting EILP-G was tested for reliability, validity and internal consistency in 20 patients with exercise-induced leg pain, 20 asymptomatic track and field athletes serving as a population at risk and 33 asymptomatic sport students.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patient group scored the EILP-G questionnaire significantly lower than both control groups (each p<0.001). Test-retest demonstrates an excellent reliability in all tested groups (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, ICC=0.861-0.987). Concurrent validity of the EILP-G questionnaire showed a substantial agreement when correlated with the chronic exertional compartment syndrome classification system of Schepsis (r=-0.743; p<0.001). Internal consistency for the EILP-G questionnaire was 0.924.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EILP-G questionnaire is a valid and reliable self-administered and disease-related outcome tool to measure the severity of symptoms that impact on function and sports ability in patients with exercise-induced leg pain. It can be recommended as a robust tool for measuring the subjectively perceived severity in German-speaking patients with exercise-induced leg pain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Institute for Sports Medicine, Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nauck
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Institute for Sports Medicine, Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Heinz
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lohrer
authors.affiliation: John King Centre for Leg Pain, London Independent Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Nat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Padhiar
authors.affiliation: John King Centre for Leg Pain, London Independent Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: King
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg; D008297:Male; D059352:Musculoskeletal Pain / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013178:Sports Medicine; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult