Development and content validation of the tele-evaluation of the hip questionnaire: A teleconsultation-oriented patient-reported outcome measure for non-arthritic hip pain.

DESIGN

Content validation study using a modified Delphi process.

SETTING

Online teleconsultation and remote evaluation context.

PARTICIPANTS

Nineteen clinical professionals with expertise in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and five patients with non-arthritic hip pain participated. A total of 49 professionals were invited, yielding a 42% response rate.

INTERVENTION: A preliminary set of items for a new patient-reported outcome measure (PROM), the Teleconsultation Evaluation of Hip Pain (TE-HIP), was generated. Two rounds of semistructured one-on-one interviews with professionals and one round with patients were conducted to assess item relevance, clarity, and completeness.

MAIN MEASURES: Consensus regarding the content validity of TE-HIP was sought, focusing on the adequacy of subdomains and individual items to capture functional limitations in non-arthritic hip pain within teleconsultation contexts.

RESULTS

The iterative process resulted in a PROM comprising seven subdomains addressing functional aspects of non-arthritic hip pain. After three rounds, both patients and professionals agreed on the relevance and comprehensibility of the proposed items. Content validity was established, with TE-HIP judged to adequately reflect the functional impact of hip pain in non-arthritic conditions suitable for remote clinical settings.

CONCLUSIONS

TE-HIP demonstrated good content validity and may serve as a useful tool in clinical and research settings to assess functionality in non-arthritic hip pain during teleconsultations. Nonetheless, further evaluation is required to establish its reliability (internal consistency, test-retest reliability, measurement error), validity (structural, cross-cultural, criterion-related), and responsiveness. Until such evidence is available, TE-HIP should be applied alongside other established instruments.