Establishment of reference scores and interquartile ranges for the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ) in patients with low back pain

Abstract

Background: The Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ) was developed in 2007, including the five domains of Pain-related disorder, Lumbar spine dysfunction, Gait disturbance, Social life disturbance, and Psychological disorder. It is used by physicians to evaluate treatment efficacy by comparing scores before and after treatment. However, the JOABPEQ does not allow evaluation of the severity of a patient's condition compared to the general population at a single time point. Given the unavailability of a standard measurement of back pain, we sought to establish reference scores and interquartile ranges using data obtained from a multicenter, cross-sectional survey taken in Japanese primary care settings.

Methods: The Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Diagnosis Support Tool project was conducted from 2011 to 2012 in 1657 hospitals in Japan to investigate the establishment of reference scores using JOABPEQ. Patients aged ≥ 20 years undergoing medical examinations by either non-orthopaedic primary care physicians or general orthopedists were considered for enrollment.

Results: A total of 10,651 consecutive low back pain patients (5331 men, 5320 women, 18 subjects with missing sex data) who had undergone a medical examination were included. Reference scores and interquartile ranges for each of the five domains of the JOABPEQ according to age and sex were recorded. The median score and interquartile range are the same in the domain of Pain-related disorder in all ages and sexes. The reference scores for Gait disturbance, Social life disturbance and Psychological disorder declined with increasing age in both age- and sex-stratified groups, while there was some different trend in Lumbar spine dysfunction between men and women.

Conclusion: Reference scores and interquartile ranges for JOABPEQ were generated based on the data from the examination data. These provide a measurement standard to assess patient perceptions of low back pain at any time point during evaluation or therapy.