title: Usefulness of functional outcome questionnaires in primary screening of spinal disease.
abstract: Back pain screening clinics are established to clinically screen patients with back pain for organic lumbar pathology. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between clinical signs of organic pathology and the level of disability as measured by functional outcome scores. Sixty-nine patients who were found to have clinical signs of organic pathology and 69 age- and sex-matched patients from 512 patients who were found to have no signs of organic pathology in the same time period in the back pain screening clinic were selected. The Oswestry Disability, Short Form-36, and visual analogue (pain) scores between the two groups were statistically analyzed. We found a significant increase in the level of disability in the group with organic pathology; however, the variation in the scores makes them unspecific for use in screening of acute spinal pathology. We also found a strong relationship between psychologic disability and length of symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Elective Orthopaedic Unit, Adelaide Hospital Incorporating National Children's Hospital, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. alimofidi@hotmail.com
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mofidi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sedhom
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: O'Shea
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fogarty
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dowling
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D013118:Spinal Cord Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires