Units

PubMed

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Citation

Type

Journal

Publication Date

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Brief description/objective

The "Lumbar Spine Outcome Assessment Instrument",||| developed by the North American Spine Society (NASS), was translated into||| German. Its psychometric properties were tested in a group of rehabilitation||| patients with chronic, unspecific back pain, and in a comparison group of||| patients in cardiologic rehabilitation. With a Cronbach's alpha of 0.92,||| internal consistency was high. Principal component analysis revealed that the||| German version of the NASS instrument surveys the factors "back pain",||| "neurologic symptoms", and "impairments". A strong correlation with other||| measures of functional impairment (FFbH-R, IRES) indicates a high concurrent||| validity of the NASS instrument. After three weeks of inpatient rehabilitation,||| sensitivity to change could be demonstrated for the summary score of the||| instrument. This significant change was primarily due to moderate effects in||| the factor "back pain". In our study population, the factor "impairments" did||| not show a significant change. On the basis of these results, the German||| version of "The North American Spine Society Lumbar Spine Outcome Assessment||| Instrument" can be described as a reliable and valid instrument for measuring||| back pain, related neurologic symptoms, and back pain-induced impairments in||| rehabilitation patients. Because the factor "impairments" is not sensitive to||| change within three weeks of rehabilitation, the instrument is only partly||| suitable for measuring short-term outcome in rehabilitation patients. Further||| research is needed to determine if the instrument is useful for middle- and||| long-term outcome measurement in rehabilitation.