Fysioterapeuten (Feb 2010)
Comparison of two examination methods from Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy: GPE-52 and CBE
Abstract
Purpose: Within Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy two fairly similar methods have been developed: the Global Physiotherapy Examination-52 (GPE-52) and the Comprehensive Body Examination (CBE). The aim of this study was to compare, and furthermore examine if both methods could discriminate equally well between healthy individuals and patients, and between different groups of patients. Design: Descriptive, comparative and quantitative cross-sectional study. Material: 132 individuals (89 women, 43 men), with average age 38.7 (SD 12.5), were examined independently with GPE-52 and CBE by two physiotherapists: 34 were healthy individuals, 32 had localised pain, 32 had widespread pain, and 34 had psychoses. Methods: Similarities and differences in GPE-52 and CBE were first examined through descriptions in literature. The included persons were examined in random order and results of each examination were unknown to the other tester. For examination of discriminative validity, Mann-Whitney U-test and Receiver Operating Characteristics Curve were used. Level of significance was set at ≤ 1 percentage. Results: Both methods comprise the domains Posture, Respiration, Movement and Muscle. GPE-52 also includes the domain Skin, while CBE includes examination of motor disturbances. GPE-52 has 13 sub-scales and 52 items (4 tests in each sub-scale), while CBE has 14 sub-scales and 112 tests (3 to 14 tests in each sub-scale). Both body examinations have well defined variables, a graded scoring scale, and many similarities, but differ somewhat in choice of variables in the sub-scales. In both methods, healthy persons had significantly lower scores and less bodily aberrations, compared to the patient groups. Conclusion: Our results show many similarities between GPE-52 and CBE, but choice of items, combination of tests in the subscales, as well as scoring, had some variations. Both methods discriminated very well between healthy individuals and patients, but not well between different groups of patients. It should be examined whether these two methods could be merged to a new body examination method, hopefully with better discriminative ability.
