Posterior to anterior spinal stiffness measured in a sample of 127 secondary care low back pain patients

AbstractBackground The sensation of spinal stiffness is a commonly reported symptom among back pain patients, with the clinical assessment usually being part decision-making process when deciding on providing manual treatment low pain. While any relationship between and likely to be multifactorial, prior exploration this has been overly simplistic (e.g., univariate regression analyses). purpose study was address gap by taking broader approach compare instrumented measures demographic characteristics, phenotypes, psychometrics, spine-related disability in sample secondary care patients using multivariate analysis. Methods Instrumented from 127 were used calculate terminal global scores. A best subset analysis find subsets 14 independent variables that most accurately predicted based evaluation adjusted R-square, Akaike Information Criteria, Bayesian Criteria. Findings In resulting models, sex (p < 0.001) age (p primary determinants stiffness, while primarily determined = 0.003) 0.024). Interpretation are multifactorial nature, future research into area should make use analyses.