Kinesiophobia, or fear of movement, is defined as an excessive and irrational fear of
physical movement to avoid painful injury, harm or re-injury. The prevalence of kinesiophobia
in chronic painful conditions, especially musculoskeletal pain, has been reported to be
between 50% and 70%. Pain-induced fear of movement or kinesiophobia negatively affects
response to treatment, recovery and mobility in patients with injury, acute-chronic pain and
in patients undergoing rehabilitation. Early and accurate detection of the presence of
pain-induced fear of movement and education about kinesiophobia will be beneficial in the
rehabilitation and recovery processes of patients (treatment processes will be shortened and
recovery success will increase). Today, existing scales measuring kinesiophobia are thought
to have some limitations. Especially the Tampa Kinesiophobia Scale is one of the most
frequently used scales in the literature to assess kinesiophobia. This scale, whose Turkish
validity and reliability study was conducted by the project coordinator and his colleagues,
is used by many health professionals working in this field, especially physiotherapists in
our country. However, in the studies in the literature and in the previous research of the
project coordinator, it was determined that there were limitations and deficiencies related
to the scale (the difficulty of patients to understand and answer the questions, the presence
of questions that are not suitable for the patient's condition, the lack of questions for
patient groups with different characteristics, etc.).
For these reasons, it was thought that there was a need to develop a new scale using a simple
language that patients could easily understand. The new scale planned to be developed is
intended to be able to measure kinesiophobia by including questions for patients with acute,
chronic pain, post-surgical pain, neurological and geriatric patients who receive services in
the field of physiotherapy and rehabilitation in the clinic. In addition, the scale to be
designed is planned to evaluate the patients' fear of movement with biological, psychological
and social reasons according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability
and Health (ICF) model.
Method:
This research is planned as a validity and reliability study in which the Turkish Atılım
Kinesiophobia Scale will be developed. After the literature review on the subject, a pool of
questions appropriate to the content of the ICF, which evaluates kinesiophobia with patient
statements taken from the literature, will be created. Considering the differences in the
disease status of the patients, questions for different patient groups mentioned before will
be selected and created. The prepared question pool will be presented to the expert opinion
of 11 people and the scale questions will be clarified. The pilot study of the scale will be
conducted with a total of 40 patients, 10 participants for each patient group. After the
pilot study, item analyses and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) analysis will be performed
with a sample size of 5 times the number of questions in the item pool with acute and chronic
pain patients. Afterwards, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) analysis will be performed for
the factor structure obtained with a sample size 10 times the number of remaining items (a
second study). In addition, a correlation analysis study will be performed with the new scale
and TSK scale for test-retest reliability (ICC) and validity. , Inclusion criteria: Young,
middle-aged, neurologic, geriatric patients aged 18-70 years with chronic musculoskeletal
pain problems after acute injury or surgery will be included.
Exclusion criteria: illiterate patients, patients with cognitive and cooperation problems
will not be included in the study.
When the new scale development process is completed, validation studies of the scale on
neurological and geriatric patient population will continue. The project outputs are planned
to be published as scientific articles within the scope of SCI and as papers in international
and national congresses. The project article will be translated into other languages abroad
and cultural adaptations will be carried out.