title: The association between symptom severity and physical activity participation in people seeking care for acute low back pain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the association between symptom severity and physical activity participation in people with acute non-specific low back pain (LBP).
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample included a total of 999 patients who presented to primary care with an acute episode of low back pain. Symptom severity, in terms of activity limitation and severity of pain; and physical activity participation before (habitual) and after pain onset were assessed using self-report questionnaires. All participants were interviewed within 14 days of pain onset.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At interview most of the participants (87.5 %) reported having moderate to extreme activity limitation due to back pain. There was a significant decrease in physical activity participation after pain onset (mean difference: -176 min, 95 % CI 327-400; p < 0.0001) but no association between habitual or change in physical activity participation and symptom severity was observed (p > 0.21).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pain onset causes a significant and immediate decrease in physical activity participation, but this change does not seem to be associated with symptom severity.
authors.affiliation: The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, Australia, juliana.leme.gomes@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Juliana Leme
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kingma
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kamper
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Maher
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D011320:Primary Health Care; D057566:Self Report; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult