1 Before you use it
What it is
The patellar tendinopathy measure and the original VISA questionnaire. Eight items — pain with daily activities, function, and current sport participation, including a single-leg decline squat item.
When to reach for it
Patellar tendinopathy, at baseline and through the loading progression — isometric, heavy slow resistance, energy-storage.
Also used for Osgood-Schlatter and Sinding-Larsen-Johansson by extension, though it wasn't validated in a paediatric population — say so if you use it there.
2 Giving it
Scoring
Eight items to 0–100. Higher is better. An asymptomatic athlete scores 100.
What it doesn’t measure
Tendon structure, and it doesn't tell you the stage. And it doesn't measure the decline-squat pain that drives your loading dose — measure that separately as an asterisk.
Repeat it
3 Reading the score
Interpreting it
Interpret against baseline.
The final item — what sport are you doing and at what level of pain — is the return-to-play item, and it is the one that stops a student clearing an athlete on a good total.
Is the change real?
On placement
Patellar tendinopathy, volleyballer, 8 weeks in. VISA-P 51 at intake, 66 today; final item still 'training with pain'.
Read it as 15 points up, over the 12.2-point MDC and the 13-point MCID (a 29% relative change; measured in patellar tendinopathy). Real and meaningful. But the last item — what sport, at what level of pain — hasn't changed.
Do don't clear the athlete on the total. The return-to-play item is the one that decides, and it says not yet.
Student trap. Using a VISA-P total to clear a jumper. Read the last item — it tells you what they're actually doing.
Official source: null. We don't host the form.
This is a learning tool. It does not diagnose patients and does not replace your clinical educator.
Did this page do its job?
CliniStudy is in beta. One tap is enough — it decides what gets fixed first.