Correlation among physical impairments, pain, disability, and patient satisfaction in patients with chronic neck pain

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.