The Predictive Validity of OMPQ on the Rehabilitation Outcomes for Patients with Acute and Subacute Non-Specific LBP in a Chinese Population

• Published in: Journal of occupational rehabilitation Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 361 - 370
• Main Authors: Law, Rainbow K. Y., Lee, Edwin W. C., Law, Sheung-Wai, Chan, Ben K. B., Chen, Phoon-Ping, Szeto, Grace P. Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.09.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Absenteeism; Adult; Back pain; Backache; Care and treatment; Chronic pain; Clinical Psychology; Cohort analysis; Disability; Disability Evaluation; Environmental Health; Female; Health care expenditures; Health Psychology; Hong Kong; Hospitals; Humans; Logistic Models; Low back pain; Low Back Pain - rehabilitation; Male; Medical screening; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Multivariate Analysis; Occupational Medicine/Industrial Medicine; Orthopedics; Pain Measurement - methods; Patient outcomes; Patients; Physical therapy; Population; Prospective Studies; Questionnaires; Recovery of Function; Rehabilitation; Reproducibility of Results; Return to Work; Return to work programs; Risk Assessment; Risk factors; ROC Curve; Sick leave; Sick Leave - statistics & numerical data; Statistical analysis; Surveys and Questionnaires; Validity; Hong Kong; China; Disability; Screening; Low back pain; Return-to-work; Predictors
• ISSN: 1053-0487; 1573-3688
• DOI: 10.1007/s10926-012-9404-y

Introduction Early screening of physical and psychosocial risk factors has been advocated as a way to identify low back pain (LBP) patients who may develop chronic disability. This study evaluated the predictive validity of a Chinese version of the Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire (OMPQ) in identifying LBP patients at risk of developing poor return-to-work (RTW) outcomes. Methods Altogether 241 patients with acute or subacute non-specific LBP agreed to participate, and they were screened at baseline with OMPQ, and evaluated after discharge from physiotherapy (n = 173) with outcome measures including the Roland–Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ), numerical pain score (0–10) and global recovery (0–10). At 1-year follow-up, information on RTW status as well as sick leave duration were obtained. Results At baseline the OMPQ had a mean score of 112.0 (SD = 26.5). The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves of OMPQ scores at 1-year follow-up recorded values of area under the curve of 0.693 for RTW and 0.714 for sick leave duration, which are comparable to those reported in European studies. OMPQ was the only factor that could significantly predict the RTW outcomes, compared to other variables such as the RMDQ scores. Conclusion The results confirmed the predictive validity of the Chinese version of OMPQ in screening LBP patients at risk of developing poor occupational outcomes, and appropriate interventions can be arranged for these high-risk individuals in the rehabilitation process.