RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Development and internal validation of a multivariable prognostic model to predict chronic pain after a new episode of non-specific idiopathic, non-traumatic neck pain in physiotherapy primary care practice
JF BMJ Open
JO BMJ Open
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP e086683
DO 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-086683
VO 14
IS 8
A1 Verwoerd, Martine J
A1 Wittink, Harriët
A1 Maissan, Francois
A1 Teunis, Marc
A1 van Kuijk, Sander M J
A1 Smeets, Rob J E M
YR 2024
UL http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/14/8/e086683.abstract
AB Objective To develop and internally validate a prognostic model to predict chronic pain after a new episode of acute or subacute non-specific idiopathic, non-traumatic neck pain in patients presenting to physiotherapy primary care, emphasising modifiable biomedical, psychological and social factors.Design A prospective cohort study with a 6-month follow-up between January 2020 and March 2023.Setting 30 physiotherapy primary care practices.Participants Patients with a new presentation of non-specific idiopathic, non-traumatic neck pain, with a duration lasting no longer than 12 weeks from onset.Baseline measures Candidate prognostic variables collected from participants included age and sex, neck pain symptoms, work-related factors, general factors, psychological and behavioural factors and the remaining factors: therapeutic relation and healthcare provider attitude.Outcome measures Pain intensity at 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months on a Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) after inclusion. An NPRS score of ≥3 at each time point was used to define chronic neck pain.Results 62 (10%) of the 603 participants developed chronic neck pain. The prognostic factors in the final model were sex, pain intensity, reported pain in different body regions, headache since and before the neck pain, posture during work, employment status, illness beliefs about pain identity and recovery, treatment beliefs, distress and self-efficacy. The model demonstrated an optimism-corrected area under the curve of 0.83 and a corrected R2 of 0.24. Calibration was deemed acceptable to good, as indicated by the calibration curve. The Hosmer–Lemeshow test yielded a p-value of 0.7167, indicating a good model fit.Conclusion This model has the potential to obtain a valid prognosis for developing chronic pain after a new episode of acute and subacute non-specific idiopathic, non-traumatic neck pain. It includes mostly potentially modifiable factors for physiotherapy practice. External validation of this model is recommended.Data are available in a public, open access repository. Technical appendix, statistical code and dataset available from the Github repository: https://github.com/uashogeschoolutrecht/painr DOI: available upon acceptance.