Condition-specific health status measures are commonly used as outcome measures in clinical trials and to assess patient progress in routine clinical practice. The expert panel that met to discuss this special issue of Spine recommended that, when possible, a condition-specific measure for back pain should be chosen from two widely used measures, the Roland–Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ)...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of unstable shoes in reducing low back pain in health professionals. METHODS Of a volunteer sample of 144 participants, 40 with nonspecific chronic low back pain were eligible and enrolled in this study. Participants were randomized to an intervention group, who wore unstable shoes (model MBT Fora), or a control group, who wore...

OBJECTIVE To assess the validity of the Back Disability Risk Questionnaire (BDRQ) to predict developing chronic back disability. METHODS Five hundred nineteen working adults (67% male) seeking outpatient care for acute, work-related back pain (<or=14 days) completed the BDRQ. After the initial medical evaluation, clinicians provided prognostic impressions in a 10-item questionnaire. Pain, fun...

BACKGROUND Having a screening tool with reasonable predictive ability is essential in providing information about an individual's risk of developing a disease, allowing an examination to be conducted with limited personnel and time, and selecting the relevant individuals for therapeutic research. This study aimed to produce a screening tool to identify office workers at risk of developing non-s...

STUDY DESIGN Multiphase cross-sectional survey of musculoskeletal pain. OBJECTIVES To estimate the prevalence of all reported and clinically significant spinal pain. To identify independent predictors of spinal pain. METHODS A total of 5752 adults sampled from three general practice registers were mailed a screening questionnaire. Subjects who reported the spine as a predominant site of pai...

The association among race, neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES), and chronic pain has not been well examined in older people. Clinical data was obtained from older adults (>50 years old) presenting to a tertiary care pain center. The relative roles of race and neighborhood SES on the chronic pain experienced in older black and white adults were assessed. Older blacks experienced more affect...

OBJECTIVE Describe the functional, clinical and quality of life (QoL) profiles in patients with cervical dystonia (CD) with residual effect or without effect of botulinum toxin (BTX), as well as verify the existence of correlation between the level of motor impairment, pain and QoL. METHOD Seventy patients were assessed through the Craniocervical dystonia questionnaire-24 (CDQ-24) and the Tor...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate outcomes of intradiscal electrothermal annuloplasty (IDEA) therapy in the treatment of chronic discogenic low back pain in consecutive IDEA patients treated at a rural pain management clinic. STUDY DESIGN An observational case series study design was applied to consecutive IDEA patients qualifying under the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patient assessment of pain and...