Assesement of different patient - reported outcome measures in patients with low back pain

Abstract

Introduction. Patient-reported outcome measures are essential in patient-centered care, especially in non-pharmacological interventions for low back pain (1). Although Oswestry Disability Index is ‘golden standard’ for functional disability evaluation, it has some disadvantages. It is most sensitive for persistent severe pain measurements, and it does not include questions about difficulty moving between positions such as sit to stand (2). The Spine Functional (SFI) is a tool to assess the impact of spinal problems, including pain on everyday activities (3). The aim of this research was to evaluate correlations and differences between various patient-reported outcome measures in adults with non-specific low back pain. Research methods and organization. The study was approved by Kaunas Regional Biomedical Research Ethics Committee. It was a two-stage study. Stage one was performed by translating and cross-culturally adapting the SFI questionnaire to Lithuanian language. This process was performed using the guidelines recommended by the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (4). During stage two volunteers with non-specific, chronic, or subacute low back pain were invited to participate. A total of 123 subjects participated in this study. Median age was 44.5(18-76) years, 70.7% of them were women. The inclusion criteria were age >18 years, symptoms duration–at least 6 weeks, native speakers of Lithuanian. Exclusion criteria were identified structural causes of back pain, infection, inflammatory disease, neurological disease, or any metabolic disorder that may affect low back area, pregnancy, use of analgesics or myorelaxants in the last 12 hours. All volunteers who agreed to participate were introduced to the study design and purpose. They completed two questionnaires: Lithuanian version of Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Lithuanian version of the Spine Functional Index (SFI), evaluated their pain intensity using Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and filled in a short form about their age, gender, and health status. The final ODI score is considered as a percentage of the patients’ subjective disability, higher scores on the questionnaire indicate greater levels of perceived disability. On the contrary, higher SFI scores indicate better functional status, therefore in this research the final SFI results were flipped to equate it to ODI final score. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS 28.0.1.0 Software. With regards to the relationship between quantitative variables, Spearman’s correlation coefficient was computed. The Wilcoxon test was applied for two dependent samples. Significance level α=0.05. The results are presented as median (Md), minimum (min), maximum (max) values – Md(min-max). Results. Only statistically significant correlations are presented in the results. A medium strength positive relationship was found between NRS score and ODI (r=0.455; p<0.001). […].