title: Long term test-retest reliability of Oswestry Disability Index in male office workers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) is one of the most common condition specific outcome measures used in the management of spinal disorders. But there is insufficient study on healthy populations and long term test-retest reliability. This is important because healthy populations are often used for control groups in low back pain interventions, and knowing the reliability of the controls affects the interpretation of the findings of these studies.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study is to determine the long term test-retest reliability of ODI in office workers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants who have no chronic low back pain history were included in study. Subjects were assessed by the Turkish-ODI 2.0 (e-forms) on 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 15th, 30th days to determine the stability of ODI scores over time. The study began with 58 (12 female, 46 male) participants. 36 (3 female, 33 male) participated for the full 30 days.
  
  
  METHODS
  Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Friedman tests were used. Test-retest reliability was evaluated by using nonparametric statistics. All tests were done by using SPSS-11.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no statistically significant difference among the median scores of each day. (χ= 6.482, p >  0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The difference between median score of the days with 1st day was neither statistically nor clinically significant. ODI has long term test re-test reliability in healthy subjects over a 1 month time interval.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, School of Health Sciences, Mevlana (Rumi) University, Konya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Rafet
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Irmak
authors.affiliation: Sports Physiotherapy Program, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gul
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baltaci
authors.affiliation: Sports Physiotherapy Program, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nevin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ergun
mesh_terms: D000288:Administrative Personnel; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Healthy subjects; low back pain; outcome measure