Assessment of the responsiveness of four scales in geriatric patients with chronic neck pain

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the responsiveness of Copenhagen Neck Functional Disability Scale (CNFDS), Neck Disability Index (NDI), Neck Bournemouth Questionnaire (NBQ), Neck Pain and Disability Scale (NPDS) in geriatric patients with non-specific chronic neck pain. A total of 52 geriatric patients with non-specific chronic neck pain were included in the present study. All participants were included in a physical therapy and rehabilitation program for five sessions per week that lasted 3 weeks. All participants were evaluated before and after the treatment. Pain and disability were assessed with the Visual Analog Scale-pain (VAS-pain), VAS-disability, muscle spasm, CNFDS, NDI, NBQ, NPDS scales. Additionally, patient satisfaction scores were questioned both before and after the treatment. Following the 3-week physical therapy and rehabilitation program, significant improvements were detected in the VAS-pain, VAS-disability, muscle spasm, CNFDS, NDI, NBQ, and NPDS scores (p<0.05). Responsiveness values were found to be as follows: CNFDS [effect size (ES)=0.78; standardized response mean (SRM)=0.90], NDI (ES=0.66; SRM=1.18), NBQ (ES=0.82; SRM=0.97) and NPDS (ES=0.87; SRM=0.98). Our study demonstrated that CNFDS, NDI, NBQ, and NPDS are responsive scales in determining treatment-related changes in geriatric patients with non-specific neck pain. These results also suggest that all of these four scales can be used in the assessment of treatment induced changes in geriatric patients with chronic neck pain.