Association between the 10 item Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire and physiotherapists' perception of the contribution of biopsychosocial factors in patients with musculoskeletal pain

Abstract Background Contrasting evidence exists on the ability of clinicians to identify biopsychosocial factors in patients with musculoskeletal pain compared to questionnaires. Objective Evaluate associations between two aspects of clinical practice used to assess biopsychosocial factor contribution in patient presentations (physiotherapist perceptions versus shortened 10-item Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire (OMPSQ-10)). Potential influence of physiotherapists' training, experience and confidence level were assessed. Study design Observational. Methods 90 musculoskeletal pain patients completed the OMPSQ-10 prior to their initial assessment. Independently, 19 treating physiotherapists provided their perception of contribution of biopsychosocial factors to the patient presentation. Pragmatic comparison of physiotherapist perceptions and the OMPSQ-10 was made with Spearman's correlations. Results Fair correlation existed between physiotherapists' perception of overall contribution of biopsychosocial factors to the patients' presentation and the OMPSQ-10 (0.39). There where moderate correlations for the domains of recovery expectancy (0.53), self-perceived ability to work (0.52) and ability to sleep (0.54). There where fair correlations for anxiety (0.33) and depression (0.32), and a poor correlation for fear (0.10). Correlations were influenced by therapist training in psychosocial aspects of pain, experience and confidence. Conclusions Physiotherapists' perceptions on biopsychosocial contributing factors to overall presentation of patients with musculoskeletal pain were reasonably correlated with a number of the domains in the OMPSQ-10. However, correlations for anxiety, depression and fear were not as good. This may reflect a lack of adequate training and/or the inadequacy of single questionnaire items to capture complex issues such as pain-related fear. Screening questionnaires are recommended as an adjunct to clinician perceptions.