Pain, Clinical Tests, and Disability in Individuals With Radicular Low Back Pain: A Responsiveness and Correlation Study

Source: PubMed Central Open Access, NCBI / U.S. National Library of Medicine

Background This study aimed to investigate the responsiveness of pain, clinical tests, and disability in individuals with RLBP. sec-0001 Methods Thirty‐two patients with RLBP were assessed for pain intensity (at rest and at worst), clinical tests comprising straight leg raising (SLR) and five‐meter walk test (5MWT), and disability was assessed by the Modified Oswestry Disability Index (MODI) at baseline, immediately after, 1 week, and 2 weeks after first‐session interventions. Change scores and effect size (ES) were calculated. sec-0002 Results Pain at rest and pain at worst were most responsive with large ES, especially at 2 weeks (ES = 3.6 and 3.6, respectively). SLR and 5MWT were responsive with large ES at 2 weeks (ES = 0.9 and 0.9, respectively). Also, MODI was responsive at 2 weeks (ES = 1.0). sec-0003 Conclusions This study indicated that the responsiveness of pain intensity (at rest and at worst), SLR, 5MWT, and MODI in patients with RLBP at 2 weeks after therapeutic interventions was evident. sec-0004