The Standardised Mensendieck Test as a tool for evaluation of movement quality in patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Nonspecific chronic low back pain is a multifactorial biopsychosocial health problem where accurate assessments of pain, function and movement are vital. There are few reliable and valid assessment tools evaluating movement quality, hence the aim was to investigate nonspecific chronic low back pain patients' movement patterns with the Standardised Mensendieck Test.


METHODS
Twenty patients (mean age=41, SD=9.02) with nonspecific chronic low back pain were examined with the Standardised Mensendieck Test whilst being videotaped and compared with 20 healthy controls. A physiotherapist, blinded to participant's group belonging, scored Standardised Mensendieck Test videos according to the standardised manual. Associations between movement quality, fear of movement and re(injury) i.e. kinesiophobia and pain intensity were also investigated.


RESULTS
Patients scored significantly poorer than the controls in all 5 Standardised Mensendieck Test domains (p<0.001). The biggest difference was observed with regard to movement pattern domain. In women we also found a difference in the respiration pattern domain.


CONCLUSIONS
The Standardised Mensendieck Test was able to detect significant differences in quality of movement between patients and healthy controls. These results indicate that the Standardised Mensendieck Test may be a valuable examination tool in assessment and treatment of nonspecific chronic low back pain patients. Further, longitudinal studies should investigate whether poor movement and respiration patterns are important factors in nonspecific chronic low back pain, e.g. as predictors and/or mediators of therapeutic effects.
['Kaarbø|Mette Bøymo|MB|', 'Haugstad|Gro Killi|GK|', 'Stubhaug|Audun|A|', 'Wojniusz|Slawomir|S|']
D000328:Adult D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena D059350:Chronic Pain D005239:Fear D005260:Female D006801:Humans D017116:Low Back Pain D008297:Male D009043:Motor Activity D010147:Pain Measurement D059825:Physical Therapists D012119:Respiration D014741:Video Recording
Standardised Mensendieck Test movement quality low back pain kinesiophobia respiration