Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112105

Marybeth Farquhar, MSN, Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 540 Gaither Road, Rockville, MD 20850, 301 427-1317, mfarquha@ahrq.gov and Nancy Latham, PhD, PT, Health and Disability Research Institute, Boston University, 53 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215.

Over 12 million adults between the ages of 18 and 64 have mobility impairments stemming from various conditions such as arthritis, heart or lung problems, spinal cord injuries, stroke or multiple sclerosis. Persons with mobility impairments often have a “thinner margin of health” and often need reliable information to help them select among complex choice options to maintain health and functioning. Currently, persons with mobility impairments lack pertinent information about the quality of care provided to people like them.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in collaboration with the CAHPS II grantees, and other federal and non-federal partners have begun development of a set of survey items that focus on the health care experiences of persons with mobility impairments (PWMI). The goals of this project are to develop screening questions that identify adults with mobility impairments and to develop, pilot test and evaluate the psychometric properties of the questionnaire that can be used by health plans and others to improve the quality of care provided to this population..

This paper will present the progress in the development of the CAHPS PWMI survey instrument including an overview of the screener questions developed and a summary of the results of the field testing for these items. In addition, the draft survey instrument will be discussed as well as the preliminary results of cognitive testing and small scale testing. Plans for future testing will also be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the CAHPS PWMI development process.
• Identify the goals of the CAHPS PWMI project.
• Describe the small scale and cognitive testing involved and summarize the results of testing completed.
• Identify issues related to collaboration with various federal and non-federal partners and stakeholders on this project.
• Describe future testing effort of the CAHPS PWMI project.

Keywords: Quality Improvement, Disability

Related Web page: www.ahrq.gov

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation