Objectives To examine the validity of the clinician-assessed version of a military occupational outcome measure (the functional activity assessment; FAA) and to compare the validity with the self-assessed version.

Methods The relationship between the clinician-assessed FAA and the SF-36 and Physical Workload Questionnaire was examined in 192 service personnel with musculoskeletal injuries. Concurrent validity was checked by comparing actual medical category with the FAA.

Results Clinicians preferentially chose an FAA grade of 2 (56% of all grades). The clinician-assessed FAA was significantly correlated with all measured variables in the expected direction. The performance of the regression models did not fully support construct validity. The discriminative ability of the models was poor.

Conclusions The clinician-assessed FAA is a less valid measure than its self-assessed counterpart. Use of the patient-reported FAA outcome measure is recommended.