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To Investigate the Interrater Reliability of pGALS to be used as a Reliable Musculoskeletal Screening Tool for Pediatric Population in Guwahati Urban Society of Northeast India

Pranjal Gogoi and NC Bhattacharyya

Research question: Whether pGALS can be used as reliable tool to assess the musculoskeletal system of pediatric population in northeast India.
Background: Musculoskeletal pain among paediatric population is an important public health problem. Musculoskeletal pains among children need to be assessed as early as possible. The assessment for the musculoskeletal pain needs the total screening of the body for its association with abnormality in the physical wellbeing. pGALS is a screening tool to assess the musculoskeletal areas in the pediatric population. Based on adult GALS (Gait, arm, leg, and spine) pediatric GALS has been developed .The reliability of the pGALS need to be checked in the pediatric population of this region so that the tool can be used for assessing the musculoskeletal system by different clinician.

Materials and method
Study Design: Interrater reliability study
Participants: Three high school level schools were taken where children ages between 5 to 15 years were included in the study. 100 subjects were included in the study with both the genders randomly allocated for the screening where 98 students have completed the data. Two physiotherapists as a rater were allotted and children were screen by the them with pGALS in a gap between 2 week.
Outcome measures: pGALS Examination tool.
Statistical analysis: The two observer’s score where the open ended data / qualitative data were coded into quantitative data. Cronbach’s Alpha value has been computed for the Interrate; r reliability.
Result: Overall acceptable to excellent inter rater reliability has been found (α ≥ 0.9).An unacceptable internal consistency found in the screening questions but the overall consistency of the different test items are acceptable.
Conclusion: The pGALS examination tool has been found to be reliable tool and can be implemented for screening the children for any musculoskeletal disorder.