Page 35 - THE DUTCH TALKING TOUCH SCREEN QUESTIONNAIRE

to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health [20]. Reading ability, language, level of education and ethnic background are all determinants of health literacy [17,21].
Results of studies that explored ‘perceived ease of use’ show that patients perceive the ease of use of questionnaires as too low [22- 25] up to acceptable [26]. In none of these studies nor in the earlier mentioned studies on perceived usefulness the level of education or (health) literacy of the respondents was taken into account. This makes it difficult to generalize these results to actual patient populations as low educated / (health) literate people are generally overrepresented in patient populations yet underrepresented in research populations [27].
The objective of this study was to get insight into the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of a PROM by patients with various levels of health literacy in the Dutch physical therapy context. For this purpose, patients with diverse levels of health literacy, levels of self- proclaimed reading ability, native languages, ethnic backgrounds and educational levels were invited to participate. In the context of this study patients with Dutch and Turkish backgrounds were approached. This last group was chosen because they form the largest group of immigrants in The Netherlands [28]. As for the questionnaire, the Dutch Patient-Specific Complaints questionnaire (PSC) [29] was selected. The PSC is the most frequently used PROM in Dutch physical therapy [11] and several Dutch health care insurance companies and the Royal Dutch Society for Physical Therapy stimulate its use in physical therapy practice [5]. The PSC is responsive. It is sensitive to change on complaints that are highly relevant to the individual patient [29,30]. The content of the Dutch PSC is very similar to the internationally better known Patient-Specific Functional Scale [31].
Perceived ease of use and usefulness
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