VALIDITY OF THE SPANISH VERSION OF THE ROLAND-MORRIS SCALE
TO MEASURE THE DEGREE OF DISABILITY DUE TO SCIATICA WITH LOW
BACK PAIN AND WITHOUT IT
Title.
Validity of the Roland-Morris Scale in lumbosciatic
pain and sciatica without low back pain.
Background.
Low back pain can limit the ability of those
who suffer it to carry out daily activities. The Roland-Morris
questionnaire is a scale developed to measure the degree of
disability in those who suffer low back pain.
It consists of a questionnaire to be used in Primary Care.
It is simple, fast and can be filled out directly by the patient.
Its assessment is fast and simple, giving a score between
0 (no limitation in daily activities due to back pain) and
24 (maximum limitation possible).
A patient's score on this scale has been shown to correspond
better to his or her level of disability than any other parameter
(including the results of radiographs, magnetic resonance
or scans, and those of scales measuring pain intensity).
A multidisciplinary team has elaborated and evaluated the
Spanish version of the scale, demonstrating that it is a valid
and reliable instrument available to determine the degree
of disability that low back pain causes (Spine 2002; 27:538-542).
(See page 15).
Low back pain can be associated with referred or radiated
pain to the leg (sciatica) and in fact, sciatica can also
exist alone, without low back pain. The Roland-Morris scale
also tends to be used to determine the degree of disability
in patients with referred or radiated pain (alone or associated
with low back pain), although its use has not been validated
for this specific kind of patient. In fact, a modification
has been added to the original version (in English) aimed
at these patients. However, this modification has not been
validated in Spanish and the validity of the version available
in Spanish for these patients is not known.
Objectives.
-
To determine the measuring characteristics of the Spanish
version of the Roland-Morris scale (or "RM")
to determine the degree of disability in patients with
lumbo-sciatica or sciatica.
-
To determine the degree of correlation between the degree
of limitation (evaluated by the RM), pain intensity and
the level of quality of life, measured by a previously
validated quality of life questionnaire (the EuroQol).
Design
Prospective, cohort study
Methodology.
The study was made with a convenience sample
of 292 acute and subacute patients (that is, with less than
90 days of pain), who visited their Primary Care physician
for sciatica with or without low back pain.
The following was determined in all of the patients: intensity
of the low back pain (by means of a visual analog scale VAS),
intensity of the referred or radiated pain (by means of VAS),
degree of disability (by means of the RM scale), and general
quality of life (by means of the EuroQol questionnaire). These
determinations were carried out the first day the patient
consulted the doctor and at 15 and 60 days later.
From the statistical analysis of the data, the validity of
the RM scale could be determined in these patients and regression
models could be made to quantify the correlation among intensity
of low back pain, intensity of the radiated pain, degree of
disability and level of quality of life.
Participants, along with the Foundation's
Science Department.
106 researchers from 40 Primary Care centers
and Primary Care Research Units in Badajoz, Baleares, Bilbao,
Burgos, Cáceres, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Huesca, Madrid,
Murcia, Palencia, Valencia, as well as the Unit of Clinical
Biostatistics at the Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid;
all of them part of the Spanish Network of Researchers in
Back Disorders.
The study has been funded by the Kovacs Foundation
Status.
Data collection has
concluded and the data is currently being analyzed.
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