Análise das propriedades psicométricas de um dispositivo portátil impresso em 3D desenvolvido para avaliar a força muscular respiratória

Abstract

Introduction: The assessment of respiratory muscle strength provides data that can be used both in the diagnosis of diseases and impairment of respiratory function, as well as in the progression of respiratory muscle training load. Currently, there are no devices with the functions of measuring maximum respiratory pressures and performing respiratory muscle training, which is the ultimate goal of this production. Objective: To analyze the psychometric properties of a portable 3D printed device (DPI-3D) developed to assess respiratory muscle strength. Method: This is a methodological study aimed at evaluating the content validity, convergent validity and reliability of a 3D-DPI. For content validation, a study was carried out with 6 participants who were experts in the area of cardiorespiratory physiotherapy. The participants answered a semi-structured questionnaire to evaluate the device, whose agreement in the answers reached more than 70%. Subsequently, the longitudinal and prospective phase was carried out, with 10 elderly women, to verify the convergent validity and reliability of the 3D-DPI. The maximum inspiratory pressure (MIP) and maximum expiratory pressure (MEP) of the participants were measured, using the manovacuometer (gold standard device) and the 3D-DPI, called SmartBreathe (SB), at two different times. Results: The total content validity index in the 2nd round of SB assessments was adequate and higher than that of the 1st round, with a score of 0.90. A statistically significant intraclass correlation coefficient higher than 0.75 was also found when comparing values from the 1st and 2nd SB and manovacuometer assessments, intra and inter-devices.. Conclusion: The SB proved to be an instrument that adequately reflects the construct being measured. Furthermore, the MIP and MEP measurements performed with the SB demonstrated excellent reliability and strong correlations with measurements performed with the gold standard.