title: Psychometric properties of the Musculoskeletal Function Assessment and the Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment: a systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the psychometric properties of the Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (MFA) and Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (SMFA).
  
  
  METHODS
  A systematic search of the following databases was undertaken concerning psychometric evidence of the MFA and SMFA: PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Cinahl. References of retrieved articles were inspected for additional data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Articles evaluating the validity, reliability or responsiveness of the MFA or SMFA in patients with musculoskeletal disorders were included in this systematic review. The methodological quality of included articles was critically appraised and the psychometric data were extracted using standardized forms. An established set of criteria were used to synthetize the evidence in order to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of included questionnaires and the gaps in the literature.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine articles on MFA and 24 articles on SMFA met the inclusion criteria. The SMFA fulfilled 75% of the psychometric criteria analyzed, while the MFA fulfilled only 50%. MFA and SMFA have excellent content validity and relative reliability (weighted average intraclass correlation coefficient ⩾ 0.87), and are moderately to highly responsive (standardized response mean between 0.65 and 1.13). Absolute reliability and clinically important difference of both questionnaires need to be defined, while the construct validity of MFA still needs to be established.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MFA and SMFA are reliable and responsive tools for monitoring the function of patients with various musculoskeletal disorders. Still, research is needed to justify their usage in a clinical setting.
authors: Université Laval, Rehabilitation Department, Quebec City, QC, Canada Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Rehabilitation and Social Integration (CIRRIS), Quebec City, QC, Canada.
authors: Jason
authors: J
authors: Bouffard
authors: Université Laval, Rehabilitation Department, Quebec City, QC, Canada Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Rehabilitation and Social Integration (CIRRIS), Quebec City, QC, Canada.
authors: Michaël
authors: M
authors: Bertrand-Charette
authors: Université Laval, Rehabilitation Department, Quebec City, QC, Canada Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Rehabilitation and Social Integration (CIRRIS), Quebec City, QC, Canada jean-sebastien.roy@rea.ulaval.ca.
authors: Jean-Sébastien
authors: JS
authors: Roy
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report
keywords: Systematic review; musculoskeletal disorders; musculoskeletal function assessment; patient-centred outcome measure; psychometry