Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Low Back Pain Management
Summary
Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) have become indispensable tools in the assessment and management of low back pain, providing direct insight into patients’ perceptions of pain intensity, functional limitation and quality of life. These instruments enable clinicians to track changes over time, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and personalise treatment strategies. Among the most widely adopted measures are the Visual Analogue Scale for pain intensity, the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ), each underpinned by rigorous psychometric evaluation. Generic measures such as the Short Form 36 (SF-36) or Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) offer broader health-related quality-of-life perspectives, while condition-specific tools yield finer granularity on disability related to spinal function. Recent advances include the integration of modern measurement theories to refine unidimensionality and responsiveness, the development of electronic platforms for remote data capture and the push towards standardisation across clinical trials. Globally, consistent use of PROMs informs guideline development, health policy and comparative effectiveness research, ultimately bridging patient experience with evidence-based care.
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Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Low Back Pain Management publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in patient-reported outcome measures in low back pain management across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Patient-Reported Outcome Measure: A questionnaire completed by the patient to assess health status, symptoms or quality of life directly from the patient’s perspective.
Oswestry Disability Index (ODI): A condition-specific PROM evaluating disability related to low back pain across ten daily-activity domains.
Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ): A self-report measure of physical functioning that records limitations in everyday activities due to back pain.
Responsiveness: The ability of a measure to detect clinically meaningful change over time.
Unidimensionality: A property indicating that a set of items measures a single underlying construct.
Psychometric Properties: Characteristics such as reliability, validity and interpretability that determine the quality of a measurement instrument.
References
- Comprehensiveness and validity of a multidimensional assessment in patients with chronic low back pain: a prospective cohort study. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders (2021).
- Measuring the impact of chronic low back pain on everyday functioning: content validity of the Roland Morris disability questionnaire. Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes (2020).
- Reliability and validity of Oswestry Disability Index among patients undergoing lumbar spinal surgery. BMC Surgery (2024).
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