A comparison of two lifting assessment approaches in patients with chronic low back pain.
The Progressive Isoinertial Lifting Evaluation (PILE) and the lifting test of the WorkWell Systems Functional Capacity Evaluation (WWS) are well known as lifting performance tests. The objective of this study was to study whether the PILE and the WWS can be used interchangeably in patients with Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) and to explore whether psychosocial variables can explain possible differences.


METHODS
53 Patients (32 men and 21 women) with CLBP were tested twice in a counter balanced design. Pearson Correlation Coefficient of r > 0.75 and non-significant differences on two-tailed t tests were considered as good comparability.


RESULTS
Pearson Correlation Coefficient was 0.75 (p < 0.01). Lifting performance on the WWS was a mean of 6.0 kg higher compared to the PILE (p < 0.01). The difference between the PILE and the WWS was unrelated to psychological variables.


CONCLUSIONS
It can be concluded that the PILE and the WWS cannot be used interchangeably. Psychosocial variables cannot explain the differences between both tests.
Soer
Remko
R
Center for Rehabilitation, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 30.002, RA, 9750 Haren, The Netherlands. r.soer@cvr.umcg.nl
Poels
Bas J J
BJ
Geertzen
Jan H B
JH
Reneman
Michiel F
MF
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017770:Lifting; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D015203:Reproducibility of Results