Objective: To investigate the correlations among pain, physical impairments, disability, and patient satisfaction in patients with chronic neck pain.
Design: A longitudinal cohort study with 6-month follow-up.
Setting: Institutional practice.
Participants: Subjects (N=218) with chronic neck pain.
Interventions: Subjects were treated with different physiotherapy modalities.
Main outcome measures: 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.
Results: 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.
Conclusions: 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.