ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to complete the first stages of instrument development for a questionnaire to measure injury prevalence and the impact of underlying and pre-existing health issues on the ability of the senior golfer to enjoy the game. The questionnaire includes descriptive items, and questions related to past medical history, pre-existing injuries, skill, equipment, transportation on the golf course, frequency of golf activity, warm-up and conditioning, and golf-related injuries. First, nine senior recreational golfers pilot tested the questions for clarity. Subsequently, 38 senior recreational golfers, 50 years of age and older, completed the revised questionnaire on two occasions. Test-retest reliability was analyzed with the Kappa statistic for items with categorical scales, and with Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (2,1) (ICC) for items with continuous scales. ICC’s for continuous items ranged between ICC = 0.692 and ICC = 0.921. Kappa statistics for categorical items ranged from K = 0.649 to K = 1.00. Overall, the questionnaire was deemed to be highly reproducible on the basis of the substantial to excellent test-retest reliability. The development of this questionnaire provides a useful basis for future research dealing with the senior golfer.
