title: The functional activity assessment: a validated PROM, unreliable in the hands of clinicians.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the validity of the clinician-assessed version of a military occupational outcome measure (the functional activity assessment; FAA) and to compare the validity with the self-assessed version.
  
  
  METHODS
  The relationship between the clinician-assessed FAA and the SF-36 and Physical Workload Questionnaire was examined in 192 service personnel with musculoskeletal injuries. Concurrent validity was checked by comparing actual medical category with the FAA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinicians preferentially chose an FAA grade of 2 (56% of all grades). The clinician-assessed FAA was significantly correlated with all measured variables in the expected direction. The performance of the regression models did not fully support construct validity. The discriminative ability of the models was poor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The clinician-assessed FAA is a less valid measure than its self-assessed counterpart. Use of the patient-reported FAA outcome measure is recommended.
authors.affiliation: Academic Department of Military Rehabilitation, Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Headley Court, Epsom, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Etherington
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008889:Military Personnel; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload
keywords: OCCUPATIONAL & INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE; Quality in health care < HEALTH SERVICES ADMINISTRATION & MANAGEMENT; REHABILITATION MEDICINE