Article

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the inter-tester reliability of a non-specific low back
pain examination procedure, for sub-classifying non-specific low back pain.
DESIGN: Reliability study. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty patients with non-specific low
back pain (12 males, 18 females, mean age: 27.7 years (standard deviation 10.3)
and 7 physiotherapists (raters). METHODS: Based on a health professionals'
consensus via focus groups and a Delphi servey, an examination procedure was
developed comprising 206 items discriminatory for non-specific low back pain, 108
of which were from the History (clinical questions) and 98 from the Physical
Examination (clinical tests) section. Utilizing this procedure, each patient was
examined by a blinded pair of raters. RESULTS: Moderate to excellent agreement
was obtained in 125 (61%) items (77 History and 48 Physical Examination items),
47 of which obtained substantial or excellent agreement (kappa >0.61), 37
moderate agreement (kappa between 0.41 and 0.6), and 41 excellent percentage
agreements. Poor reliability (kappa < 0.41) was yielded in the remaining 81 items
(31 History and 50 Physical Examination items). CONCLUSION: Satisfactory
reliability was obtained in nearly two-thirds of History and half of the Physical
Examination items on a non-specific low back pain assessment list generated
through consensus agreement. These findings provide clinicians and researchers
with valuable information regarding which items are considered reliable and can
be utilized in non-specific low back pain patient evaluation/assessment
procedures, classification attempts and clinical trials.

Langue : ANGLAIS