Current Evidence of Reliability and Validity of Clinical Tests for the Assessment of Movement Control in Lumbar Back Pain Systematic Literature Review

A correlation between reduced lumbar movement control and unspecific back pain is often found in clinical practice. The aim of this systematic literature review was to identify the current evidence of diagnostic performance criteria of movement control tests in patients with lumbar back pain as well as the most reliable tests or test combinations in order to give daily practice recommendations. The analysis of the individual performance criteria of the selected 23 tests and their combinations showed variable results. Adequate reliability for the diagnostic value and clinical feasibility could be shown for most of the tests. There is currently insufficient evidence concerning the discriminant validity between healthy subjects and patients with back pain of movement control tests and their combinations. They can therefore only be recommended conditionally. Each applied clinical test/test combination should be performed standardized. Due to the lack of consistent evaluation criteria they should only be evaluated in the context of the individual case history and additional physical examination findings.