A descriptive analysis of clinical application of patient-reported outcome measures and screening tools for low back pain patients in US chiropractic teaching institutions. J Chiropr Educ 2021 Mar 01;35(1):144-148
Date
09/16/2020Pubmed ID
32930339Pubmed Central ID
PMC7958671DOI
10.7899/JCE-19-12Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85102559391 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 2 CitationsAbstract
OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and screening tools (STs) for low back pain (LBP) in clinics of chiropractic teaching institutions in the United States.
METHODS: A descriptive analysis was completed with data collection achieved between June 2018 and March 2019. PROMs/STs were classified as disability/functional measures, pain measures, psychosocial measures, and other measures. Frequencies of use of PROM/ST instruments were calculated.
RESULTS: Representatives from 18 of 19 chiropractic institutions (94.75%) provided a description of PROM/ST use for LBP in their teaching clinics. Seventeen institutions (94.4%) reported the routine clinical use of PROMs/STs for LBP. Disability/functional measures were the most common type of instruments used, followed by pain measures, psychosocial measures, and others. The 4 most common individual PROMs/STs reported were (1) Oswestry Disability Index, (2) a variation of a pain rating scale, (3) Keele STarT Back Tool, and (4) Patient Specific Functional Scale. Six out of 18 (33%) institutions reported the use of a PROM/ST specifically designed to focus on psychosocial influences.
CONCLUSION: Most chiropractic institution teaching clinics in the United States reported the clinical use of PROMs/STs for patients presenting with LBP. This mirrors trends in chiropractic literature of increasing use of PROMs/STs. A minority of institutions described the clinical use of a PROM/ST specifically designed to detect psychosocial influences.
