Objective: To examine the construct and concurrent validity of a new occupational military outcome measure (the Functional Activity Assessment [FAA]).
Design: A validation study.
Setting: British Defence rehabilitation facilities.
Participants: A total of 141 service personnel who attended a musculoskeletal injury assessment clinic.
Methodology: The association among the Short Form 36 (SF-36), Physical Workload Questionnaire, and the FAA was examined. Agreement and correlation with an actual medical category also was examined.
Main outcome measures: FAA, SF-36 and Physical Workload Questionnaire scores.
Results: The FAA was significantly correlated with heavy physical workload and all SF-36 subscale and component scores, in line with predictions. The regression model retained 3 variables that accounted for 49% of the variation in FAA, most of which was accounted for by the role-physical subscale score of the SF-36. The FAA was well correlated with actual medical category.
Conclusions: The FAA is a valid measure of physical health in relation to physical workload.
Copyright © 2011 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.