Correlation among physical impairments, pain, disability, and patient satisfaction in patients with chronic neck pain.

Abstract

To investigate the correlations among pain, physical impairments, disability, and patient satisfaction in patients with chronic neck pain. A longitudinal cohort study with 6-month follow-up. Institutional practice. Subjects (N=218) with chronic neck pain. Subjects were treated with different physiotherapy modalities. Data were obtained for self-reported disability, verbal numeric pain scale, patient satisfaction, and 2 measures of physical impairments during the initial visit, at 6 weeks, and finally at 6 months. The correlation among 4 sets of measurements varied. Moderate correlation was noted between disability and patient satisfaction ( r range, .50-.65), and between disability and pain ( r range, .55-.63). A fair relationship was found between pain and patient satisfaction ( r range, .43-.48), but only weak relationships were found between physical impairments and pain ( r range, -.08 to -.25). The correlations tended to increase in the follow-up assessments. No strong correlations were found among disability, patient satisfaction, pain, and physical impairments although the correlations tended to increase in the follow-up assessments. The findings support the suggestion that clinicians should address as many relevant aspects of a presenting clinical entity as possible in the management of chronic neck pain.