Neck pain patterns and subgrouping based on weekly SMS-derived trajectories

doi:10.1186/s12891-020-03660-0

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BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2020; 21: 678.

Published online 2020 Oct 14. doi: 10.1186/s12891-020-03660-0

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Table 4

Baseline characteristics and clinical findings of patients in the four variation patterns, and eight subgroups of the Persistent fluctuating and Episodic variation patterns

Main patterns and subgroups NP variables	Ongoing/ Recovered n = 45 (3.9%)	Persistent fluctuating n = 569 (49.5%)	Episodic n = 513 (44.6%)	Single episode n = 23 (2.0%)
Age, mean (SD)	47 (16)	45 (13)	44 (12)	41 (13)
Female, n (%)	22 (49)	424 (76)^a	386 (74)^a	14 (61)
Currently on sick leave, n (%)	1 (2.2)	34 (6.1)	26 (5.0)	0 (0)
First episode, n (%)	19 (42)	53 (10)^a	79 (15)^a	9 (39)
Duration > 1 month, n (%)	18 (42)	484 (88)^a	356 (69)^a	11 (50)
> 3 previous episodes, n (%)	14 (31)	449 (81)^b	321 (62)	7 (30)
Concomitant LBP, n (%)	13 (30)	342 (62)^b	240 (47)	6 (27)
Headache, n (%)	18 (42)	447 (81)^b	333 (65)	11 (50)
Pain intensity - NRS (0–10), median (IQR)	3 (1–5)	5 (3–6)^b	3 (2–5)	2.5 (1–4)
Psychosocial screening – ÖMPQ Short form (0–100), mean (SD)	26 (19)	43 (17)^b	33 (16)	24 (16)
General health (VAS 0–100), mean (SD)	80 (13)	66 (20)^b	75 (18)	80 (14)
Psychological distress - HSCL-10, mean (SD)	1.4 (0.4)	1.7 (0.5)^b	1.5 (0.5)	1.3 (0.3)
Severe		2.0 (0.6)^c	1.6 (0.5)
Moderate		1.8 (0.5)^c	1.5 (0.4)
Mild		1.7 (0.5)^c	1.5 (0.5)
Minor		1.5 (0.5)	1.4 (0.2)
Disability – NDI, mean (SD)	5.2 (3.4)	13.9 (6.6)^b	9.4 (5.9)	7.5 (4.8)
Severe		22.5 (7.9)^c	11.2 (5.9)
Moderate		15.5 (5.9)^c	8.8 (6.1)
Mild		12.1 (5.2)^c	7.4 (5.0)
Minor		10.1 (5.7)^c	5.3 (2.9)
Radiation into arm at baseline, n (%)	24 (56)	449 (81)^b	371 (73)	12 (55)
Severe		41 (84)	194 (75)
Moderate		147 (84)^c	115 (70)
Mild		228 (79)	58 (72)
Minor		33 (75)	4 (56)

NP, Neck pain; SD, Standard deviation; LBP, Low back pain; EQ-5D; ÖMPQ, Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire Short-form; IQR, Interquartile range; HSCL-10, Hopkins Symptom Checklist-10; CI, Confidence Interval, 95%; NDI, Neck disability index. ^a,b,c,dCalculated with Chi^b and ANOVA. Results in boldface are statistically significant (p < 0.05) differences between: ^aPersistent fluctuating and Episodic patterns and the Ongoing and Single episode patterns respectively, but not between Persistent fluctuating and Episodic patterns, ^bPersistent fluctuating pattern and the three other patterns respectively, ^c between Persistent fluctuating and Episodic subgroups