Responsiveness of health status questionnaires in musculoskeletal disorders: a systematic review

Introduction
Chronic diseases, as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), represent a serious public health problem because they are some of the most important causes of disabilities and absenteeism. Because of researches and therapy improving, there are many people working even experiencing MSDs. Responsiveness evaluation of health status questionnaires is useful to detect changes in performance and self-report symptoms during rehabilitation therapies and return to work. Objective: This is a systematic review with the aim to identify studies involving responsiveness of instruments able to evaluate musculoskeletal disorders and workplace investigations.

Methods
An electronic search was conducted, using Medline, Nursing Journals and Scielo, including papers from 2001 to june-2011, using the word responsiveness in any part of the title, abstract or text. 

Results
Searches showed 1179 papers, being 50 (4,25%) about developing or psychometric evaluation of measurement tools. Americas (38%) and Europe (36%) have most of publications. About the subjects, 10 studies (20%) are about MSDs, 1 about job aspects (2%) and 1 about rehabilitation (2%).

Discussion
Psychometric properties, including reliability, validity and responsiveness, are recognized as important aspects to be considered during an instrument develop and evaluation. Responsiveness is not commonly evaluated in studies of MSDs and return to work. This represents a preoccupation, since longitudinal evaluations are necessary and essential for rehabilitation therapies in the field of occupational health. Complete psychometric studies are still required in this area.