Content validity of MyGoals, a new goal setting and goal management system

Research Objectives: To evaluate the content validity of a goal setting and goal management system called MyGoals designed to guide occupational therapists (OT) to implement theory-based, client-engaged intervention for adults with chronic conditions in community-based settings.

Design: Survey study

Setting: Community

Participants: Three expert researchers and one clinician

Interventions: NA

Main Outcome Measures: Electronic survey consisting of 39 questions with 4-point Likert scales and qualitative feedback. The survey included relevance, likely effectiveness, and appropriateness scales. Relevance was defined as the extent to which the MyGoals activity is pertinent to the intended target and was rated from 1:irrelevant/extraneous to 4:central/key/essential. Likely effectiveness was operationally as the likelihood that the MyGoals activity will successfully address the intended target and was rated from 1:not likely to be effective to 4:very likely to be effective. Appropriateness was defined as the extent to which the activity is appropriate for the target population and was rated from 1: unsuitable to 4:suitable. The item-level content validity indices (I-CVI) ≥ 0.78 and average scale-level content validity indices (S-CVI/AV) ≥ 0.90 was benchmarks for good outcomes. The I-CVI refers to the proportion of experts whose rating was 3 or 4 on each intervention activity-target pairing. The S-CVI/AV refers to the average of all I-CVIs for all scales.

Results: The scale-level CVI for relevance, likely effectiveness, and appropriateness scales were 0.97, 0.96, and 0.93, respectively. Eighty-five percent of the items had an I-CVI of 1. Five and ten percent of the items had an I-CVI of 0.75 and 0.67, respectively. Feedback was related to the concern that clients may experience difficulties comprehending theoretical constructs such as self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and plan formulation.

Conclusions: MyGoals has good content validity, suggesting that it is relevant, likely effective, and appropriate to guide theory-based, client-engaged goal setting and goal management implementation for adults with chronic conditions in community-based rehabilitation.

Author(s) Disclosures: NA