Evaluation of two time-specific back pain outcome measures

Area of Science:

• Clinical assessment
• Pain management
• Health outcomes research

Background:

• Existing back pain outcome measures often focus on current pain and disability.
• A 4-week retrospective measurement may offer a more appropriate assessment of back pain and disability.
• The development of reliable and valid outcome measures is crucial for low back pain research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the acceptability, validity, and reliability of modified Roland-Morris Questionnaire and Von Korff scales.
• To assess the utility of these measures for evaluating back pain and disability over a preceding 4-week period.

Main Methods:

• A postal questionnaire study involving individuals with chronic back pain.
• Modified Roland-Morris Questionnaire and Von Korff scales administered to assess pain and disability over 4 weeks.
• Validity assessed against the Medical Outcome Study Short Form 36 and general comparator questions; reliability assessed via retest questionnaires.

Main Results:

• High completion rates for modified Von Korff scales (94% pain, 92% disability).
• Modified measures showed significant changes correlating with pain and disability ratings and the SF-36.
• Retest data indicated good repeatability for the modified measures, with Von Korff scales explaining more variance than the Roland-Morris Questionnaire.

Conclusions:

• The modified Von Korff scales are easily completed and demonstrate validity and repeatability for assessing 4-week back pain and disability.
• The modified Roland-Morris Questionnaire required imputation for missing data and was less effective than the Von Korff scales.