Psychometric Analysis of the questionnaires for the assessment of lower limbs available in Italian version: a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction The present study aims to analyze the structural and psychometric properties of the questionnaires published in Italian to evaluate the lower limbs. Material and Methods two blinded researcher performed a literature searches on the databases: Pubmed, Scopus, Cochrane, Dialnet, Cinahl, Embase, and PEDro databases. For the Keywords was using the Boolean operators "OR" and "AND": lower limb, hip, knee, foot and ankle, questionnaire, Italian, psychometric, validity and Validation. In each of the selected articles, the structural characteristics and, secondly, the psychometric characteristics were analysed. Results A great heterogeneity is observed in the number of items that made up each questionnaire, ranging between 4 and 42; most of the questionnaires are completed in less than 10 min, with some exceptions. Half of the selected questionnaires (16/32) presented subcategories. The reliability of the vast majority of the questionnaires was good or excellent. The criterion validity was very heterogeneous among the questionnaires identified. The construct validity was calculated at 4/32, while the sensitivity and the Standard error measurement (SEM) were 8/32, respectively. Conclusion The Italian versions of the questionnaires studied to evaluate the lower limbs show good essential structural and psychometric characteristics, also comparable to versions in other languages.