Responsiveness and Minimally Important Changes for Persian-version of Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation Questionnaire in Patients with Lateral Elbow Tendinopathy Following Physiotherapy Intervention

Abstract

Background: Evaluating responsiveness and calculating minimally important change (MIC) for the Persian-version of the Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation (PRTEE) questionnaire following physiotherapy in patients with lateral elbow tendinopathy (LET).

Methods: We enrolled 82 patients with LET to complete the PRTEE. After completing four weeks of physiotherapy, all patients were reevaluated by the PRTEE. The patients also rated their changes on a 7-point global rating of change scale (GRoC). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and correlation analysis were used for evaluating the responsiveness. The MIC was determined by determining a desirable cutoff on the ROC curve.

Results: The results showed a moderate relationship (Spearman's correlation coefficient= 0.43-0.56) of total PRTEE, pain subscale, and function subscale with the GRoC scale. The total PRTEE, pain subscale, and function subscale revealed an area under the curve of 0.87, 0.82, and 0.83, respectively. We found the MICs 31.33, 14.5, and 15.5 points for total PRTEE, pain subscale, and function subscale, respectively.

Conclusion: The Persian-version of the PRTEE questionnaire has acceptable responsiveness and can measure changes in patients with LET following physiotherapy. We advocate using the PRTEE questionnaire in both clinical settings and research.

Keywords: Lateral elbow tendinopathy; Measurement properties; Minimal important change; Patient-rated tennis elbow evaluation; Rehabilitation.