PILOT TEST OF A QUESTIONNAIRE AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR A STUDY TO EXPLORE THE AWARENESS ABOUT PHYSIOTHERAPY AND CHALLENGES IN ITS SERVICE UTILIZATION AMONG CHILDREN WITH DISABILITYOF LOWER SUBANSIRI DISTRICT ARUNACHAL PRADESH

Background and Objectives: Disabled children often encounter significant barriers in accessing physiotherapy service, which are essential for their physical and cognitive development. Exploring the challenges faced by children with disability of lower subansiri district in accessing physiotherapy service may help contribute to achieve The Rehabilitation 2030 by WHO. However, due to unavailability of questionnaire to measure these, a questionnaire was developed for this purpose and validated.Therefore, this comprehensive study was envisaged to examine the research methodology and pilot test the questionnaire that will be utilized for identifying the awareness and challenges faced by children with disability of Lower Subansiri, Arunachal Pradesh, India in accessing physiotherapy service. Methods & Methodology: The process of developing a questionnaire involved an extensive literature search, questionnaire structure development and it’s item generation, validity and reliability assessment and pilot testing. The survey method was used to conduct the pilot study. Questionnaire was pilot tested among five caregiver/parents of child with disability. The validity of the questionnaire was examined through face validity and content validity method (I-CVI, I-CVI/Ave, I-CVI/UA). The reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha formula and inter-rater reliability was analysed using Interclass Correlation Co-efficient (ICC) using a two-way mixed effects model for absolute agreement based on average ratings. Result: The items included in the questionnaire contains four domains with total of 18 questions; demographic data of caregiver/parents, demographic data of child with disability, awareness about physiotherapy and challenges in its utilization of physiotherapy service. The validity indicator falls in the excellent range and the reliability indicators i.e Cronbach’s alpha was 0.831, indicating high reliability and interclass correlation coefficient; ICC(3,1) was 0.796 [(95% CI:0.62-0.91), F(17,102) = 5.92, p<0.001] indicating a good agreement. Therefore the developed scale is valid and reliable to assess the awareness about physiotherapy and its challenges in service utilization among children with disability based on pilot result. Furthermore, this study guides the methodology for future cross-sectional survey research. Conclusion: Based on the validators’ consensus questionnaire was considered understandable and relevant with good validity and high reliability to explore the awareness and challenges faced by children with disabilities of lower subansiri, Arunachal Pradesh in utilization of physiotherapy service.