title: Low back functional health status of patient handlers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to assess low back functional health among a group of nurses with a history of low back pain symptoms in a university hospital using a direct measure of low back functional performance and compare to traditional low back disability and pain questionnaires.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-two nurses and patient care associates volunteered for the study. The clinical lumbar motion monitor (LMM) was used to directly measure low back functional performance. The participants performed a series of standard tasks involving trunk flexion and extension at different asymmetries. The LMM measures the motion signature of the participant (range of motion, velocity and acceleration) in all three planes of the body. The clinical LMM evaluation documented objective assessment of low back function normalized for age and gender. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) was used to evaluate self-reported disability and the McGill Pain Questionnaire visual analog scale assessed pain symptom.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average functional performance probability was 0.49 with a standard deviation of 0.29, indicating that on average the functional performance was impaired. The average ODI score was 13.4 with a standard deviation of 11.6. The correlation between the functional performance probability and ODI was 0.046 (not statistically significant).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The clinical LMM functional performance measure provides a direct measure of trunk function. The low correlation between the ODI and clinical LMM functional performance probability indicates that the direct functional performance measure adds another component to our understanding of low back health or impairment that traditional questionnaires lack.
authors.affiliation: Biodynamics Laboratory, Integrated System Engineering, College of Engineering, The Ohio State University, 1971 Neil Avenue, 210 Baker Systems, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA, ferguson.4@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Sue A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ferguson
authors.forename: Dustin R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Grooms
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Onate
authors.forename: Safdar N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: William S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Marras
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009732:Nursing Care; D016272:Occupational Health; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000066477:Work Performance