Most of the outcome question naires had a mixed content reflecting various constructs such as pain and symptoms , sleep disturbances , psychological dysfunctions , physical impairments , and social functions .
STUDY DESIGN A systematic literature review of outcome question naires design ed for assessing functional status or disability in patients with low back pain .
OBJECTIVES To provide a comprehensive overview of all functioning/disability question naires used in recent years and to explore how the main concept(s ) was described or defined in the original paper , the content or the domains of disability , and the measurement properties of the question naires .
SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA A number of clinical tools design ed for evaluating the functional status of patients with low back pain have been developed .
Only a few have been review ed earlier , and there has been little focus on the content reflected in the question naires .
Patient characteristics, practice activities, and one-month outcomes for chronic, recurrent low-back pain treated by chiropractors and family medicine physicians: a practice-based feasibility study.
BACKGROUND Chronic low-back pain is a significant public health problem for which few therapies are supported by predictable outcomes . In this report , practice activities and 1-month outcomes data are presented for 93 chiropractic patients and 45 medical patients with chronic , recurrent low-back pain . DESIGN A prospect i ve , observational , community-based feasibility study involving chiropractors and family medicine physicians . SETTING Forty private chiropractic clinics , the outpatient clinic of the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University , and 5 other Portl and area family medicine clinics . OUTCOMES MEASURES The main outcome measures were pain severity , functional disability , sensory and affective pain quality at 1 month , and patient satisfaction assessed at 7 to 10 days and at 1 month . RESULTS Although differences were noted in age , sex , education , and employment , the patients were closely matched at baseline with respect to frequency , severity , and type of low-back pain and the psychosocial dimensions of general health . The treatment of choice for chiropractors was spinal manipulation and physical therapy modalities ; for medical physicians antiinflammatory agents were most frequently used . Chiropractic patients averaged 4 visits , and medical patients averaged 1 visit . On average , chiropractic patients showed improvement across all outcomes : 31 % change in pain severity , 29 % in functional disability , 36 % in sensory pain quality , and 57 % in affective pain quality . Medical patients showed minimal improvement in pain severity ( 6 % ) and functional disability ( 1 % ) and showed deterioration in the sensory ( 29 % ) and affective ( 26 % ) dimensions of pain quality . Satisfaction scores were higher for chiropractic patients . Outcomes for medical patients were heavily dependent on psychosocial status at baseline . CONCLUSION Patients with chronic low-back pain treated by chiropractors show greater improvement and satisfaction at 1 month than patients treated by family physicians . Non clinical factors may play an important role in patient progress . Findings from the Health Re sources and Services Administration-funded project will include a report on the influence of practice activities , including more frequent visits by chiropractic patients , on the clinical course of low-back pain and patient outcomes . ( J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2000;23:239 - 45 )
Most of the outcome question naires had a mixed content reflecting various constructs such as pain and symptoms , sleep disturbances , psychological dysfunctions , physical impairments , and social functions .
STUDY DESIGN A systematic literature review of outcome question naires design ed for assessing functional status or disability in patients with low back pain .
OBJECTIVES To provide a comprehensive overview of all functioning/disability question naires used in recent years and to explore how the main concept(s ) was described or defined in the original paper , the content or the domains of disability , and the measurement properties of the question naires .
SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA A number of clinical tools design ed for evaluating the functional status of patients with low back pain have been developed .
Only a few have been review ed earlier , and there has been little focus on the content reflected in the question naires .