title: The Canine Orthopedic Index. Step 2: Psychometric testing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To perform psychometric testing an owner self-administered questionnaire, the Canine Orthopedic Index (COI), designed to assess outcome in dogs with orthopedic disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Original study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Owners (n = 20) of dogs with osteoarthritis (OA) for item (question) pretesting, and 80 owners of dogs with OA for reliability and validity testing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Standard methodology for the stepwise development and testing of instruments designed to assess subjective states was followed. Items generated in previous studies were pretested for readability, ambiguity, and inter-item correlations; poorly performing items were removed; and the reduced set of items subjected to factor analysis, reliability, and validity testing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four factors were identified and named on the basis of the items contained in them: "Stiffness," "Gait," "Function," and "Quality of Life." Cronbach's α ranged from 0.76 to 0.86, suggesting the items in each factor could be assessed as a group to compute factor scores (i.e., stiffness, gait, function, and quality of life scores). The test-retest analysis revealed κ values from 0.68 to 0.80. Overall, the scores amongst the 4 factors correlated moderately well (r = 0.52-0.58), with a mild correlation (r = 0.35) between gait and function scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The COI is a psychometrically sound owner completed instrument that can assess 4 domains in dogs with OA: Stiffness, Gait, Function, and Quality of Life.
authors: Veterinary Clinical Investigations Center University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
authors: Dorothy Cimino
authors: DC
authors: Brown
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003625:Data Collection; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D004285:Dogs; D005552:Forelimb / Q000473:pathology; D006614:Hindlimb / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D019637:Orthopedic Procedures / Q000592:standards / Q000662:veterinary*; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000662:veterinary*; D063868:Patient Outcome Assessment; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires