An investigation into the use of outcome measurement tools for evaluating changes

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Does the Feldenkrais Method make a difference? An investigation into the use of outcome measurement tools for evaluating changes in clients.

Evidence-based practice confirms the need for outcome measures. This enables changes in clients to objectively measured.A study* was conducted in Australia to explore the use of certain outcome measures to evaluate the effects of the Feldenkrais Method.A pre/post test design was used to investigate the use of three outcome measurement tools for clients experiencing problems performing everyday functional tasks who attended Feldenkrais sessions. Eleven Feldenkrais practitioners from across Australia submitted data on 48 clients.
Changes were detected in the clientsí ability to perform everyday tasks (Patientspecific Functional Scale improved 3.8 points, p<0.001), levels of pain decreased
(Pain Outcome Profile improved in current pain p=0.001, physical index p<0.001 and affective index p=0.001) and quality of life improved significantly in six of the eight
SF12v2 Health Survey domains.

The Pain Outcome Profile provided useful information about a clientís current pain as well as their physical and affective profile. Researchers in the United states used this tool to investigate veterans with current pain (Clark et al 2003.) They described Clinically Significant Differences for the Current Pain item to be 0.34, 0.85 and 1.35
for small, medium and large differences. The clients in the current study had an improvement of 1.7 points, which can therefore be considered a large Clinically Significant Difference.

The clients in this study had their symptoms for a prolonged period prior to commencing Feldenkrais (a median time of 12 months), so to achieve almost uniform improvement in pain scores was a significant finding. It is important to note too that the improvements were found after an average number of only 6.5 sessions. In each Domain of the SF12v2 Health Survey, the scores improved after the Feldenkrais sessions, and became closer to the US Mean scores (ie scores for the normal population) for that Domain. In particular, ëMental Healthí and ëBodily Painí made large improvements (p<0.001). Refer to the graph over the page.

Summary: This study demonstrated an improvement in physical functioning, decreased pain and improved wellbeing following a series of Feldenkrais Method sessions