The effect of psychosocial measures of resilience and self-efficacy in patients with neck and lower back pain

Abstract

Background context: Psychosocial risk factors may predispose to progression of back and neck pain to chronic pain or disability. Resilience (the ability to recover from stress) and pain self-efficacy (confidence that one can perform daily activities despite pain) are important psychometric properties shown to affect health and illness.

Purpose: To examine the relationships among resilience, pain self-efficacy, and disability in spine patients.

Design/setting: Prospective, single-center orthopedic spine clinic.

Patient sample: One hundred and ninety five patients in a tertiary spine practice recruited between December 2016 and March 2017.

Outcome measures: Self-reported measures: Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire 2 (PSEQ-2) Short Form, Neck Disability Index (NDI), and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI).

Methods: A prospective study was conducted of new patients visiting an orthopedic spine clinic complaining of neck pain or low back pain, with or without radiculopathy. Enrolled patients completed a survey of demographic information, the six-question BRS, the two-question PSEQ-2 Short Form, and NDI or ODI for neck or back pain, respectively. The relationship between BRS and NDI or ODI was examined, and the relationship between PSEQ-2 and NDI or ODI was also examined.

Results: A total of 195 patients were evaluated. After excluding those with incomplete NDI or ODI, 180 patients were included in the analysis (46.1% men [83/180]; mean age 53 [standard deviation: 17] years). 139 (77.2%) subjects complained of low back pain and 41 (22.8%) subjects complained of neck pain. BRS was strongly negatively correlated with NDI (r=-0.61, p<.0001) and moderately negatively correlated with ODI (r=-0.34, p<.0001). PSEQ-2 was strongly negatively correlated with NDI (r=-0.69, p<.0001) and strongly negatively correlated with ODI (r=-0.62, p<.0001). BRS was moderately positively correlated with PSEQ-2 (r=0.36, p<.0001). For the low back pain cohort, the correlation between PSEQ-2 and ODI was significantly greater than the correlation between BRS and ODI (p=.0003); this difference was not noted in the neck pain cohort (p=.34).

Conclusions: Low resilience and low pain self-efficacy are both independently associated with greater functional disability in neck and low back pain patients. Spine surgeons may find it useful to incorporate the BRS and PSEQ-2 into preoperative assessment. Future studies should examine the utility of these simple validated questionnaires in predicting response to treatments, including surgical intervention.

Keywords: Back pain; Brief Resilience Scale; Disability; Pain self-efficacy; Resilience; Spine.