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 .
Simplifying Outcome Measurement: Evaluation of Instruments for Measuring Outcome After Fusion Surgery for Chronic Low Back Pain
Study Design . A comparative evaluation of outcome instruments and global assessment was performed . Objective . To test patient global assessment as a substitute for the use of more comprehensive outcome instruments in treatment trials of chronic low back pain . Summary of Background Data . Treatment outcome can be measured with pain scales and functional instruments . In the absence of a gold st and ard , the patient him- or herself is the basic reference for outcome , for which the instruments give a more or less exact measurement . Global assessment , which is a retrospective recording , may overestimate improvement as a result of recall or motivational bias . Methods . In this study , 294 patients treated for chronic low back pain were evaluated with a  visual analog scale for back pain , the  Oswestry  Disability Index , the Million Score and general function score for disease-specific disability , and the Zung Depression Scale for depressive symptoms .  The correlation between the pretreatment and posttreatment scores for the outcome instruments ( & Dgr ; scores ) and the global assessment scores was calculated ; effect sizes were compared ; sensitivity and specificity with receiver operating characteristics ( ROC ) curves were estimated ; and associations of global assessment with pretreatment and posttreatment scores were determined . Results . All the & Dgr ; scores showed significant correlations with patient global assessment and with each other . The effect size of global assessment tended to be greater than that of the outcome instruments . The specificity and sensitivity of the disability instruments and pain scale were approximately 75 % , whereas they were lower for depression . The associations between global assessment and outcome instrument scores did not produce evidence that global assessment was biased . Conclusion . Patient global assessment is a valid and responsive descriptor of overall effect in r and omized controlled trials of treatment for chronic low back pain
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 .