Influence of the kinesiophobia and its pain intensity relationship in subjects with onychocryptosis

Onychocryptosis is a nail deformity that occurs when the side of the nail grows into soft tissue, which causes pain, sepsis and the formation of granulation. The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare different levels of kinesiophobia in subjects with onychocryptosis before and after surgery to eliminate this condition.

A descriptive and observational study was conducted with a total sample size of 25 subjects with a mean age of 40.96 ± 18.25 years. The pretest sample was composed of the 25 subjects before the surgical treatment of onychocryptosis and the posttest sample was composed of the same 25 subjects after the surgical treatment of onychocryptosis. Kinesiophobia levels and total scores were self-reported using the Spanish version of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK-11).

The Wilcoxon test for related samples and the Mann-Whitney U test for independent samples were used to compare the results before and after the surgical treatment. It was observed that in all the items as well as in the total score, there were significant changes in the levels of kinesiophobia, after the surgical intervention for onychocryptosis (P < 0.05) compared to the levels before surgery, except for items 4 and 11 in which there were no significant differences (P > 0.05). Before surgery, 0% of the subjects with onychocryptosis reported not being afraid of movement, 16% reported mild fear of movement, 8% reported moderate fear of movement and 76% of the subjects with onychocryptosis reported severe and maximum fear of movement. On the other hand, 100% of the subjects did not report kinesiophobia after surgical treatment (P < 0.01).

The levels of kinesiophobia were higher in the subjects with onychocryptosis compared to the subjects after having undergone surgery to eliminate onychocryptosis.