Known-Group Validity and Sensitivity to Change in the Sensory-Motor Dysfunction Questionnaire in Individuals with...

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Physical Therapy
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Sensorimotor dysfunction is common in individuals with neck pain.
• Neck pain treatment can improve sensorimotor integration (SMI).
• Validated patient-reported outcome measures for disordered SMI in neck pain are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• Validate the Sensory-Motor Dysfunction Questionnaire (SMD-Q) for known-group validity between healthy individuals and those with chronic neck pain (CNP) or subclinical neck pain (SCNP).
• Assess the SMD-Q's ability to quantify changes in SMI following tailored treatment.

Main Methods:

• Part 1: Administered SMD-Q to 30 neck pain patients (CNP/SCNP) and 30 healthy controls for known-group validity.
• Part 2: Re-administered SMD-Q to neck pain patients after 8-12 weeks of tailored treatment to assess sensitivity to change.

Main Results:

• The SMD-Q significantly discriminated between healthy and neck pain participants (p ≤ 0.001).
• The SMD-Q showed a large effect size (ηp² = 0.162) suggesting potential sensitivity to treatment effects.
• The sample size was insufficient to definitively determine treatment effect discrimination between groups (medium effect size, ηp² = 0.070).

Conclusions:

• The SMD-Q can differentiate varying degrees of disordered sensorimotor integration.
• Further research is required to establish the SMD-Q's sensitivity to treatment-induced changes in SMI.