ArticleCanadian journal of surgery. Journal canadien de chirurgie
Validation of the Subgroups for Targeted Treatment for Back (STarT Back) screening tool at a tertiary care centre.
Article in Canadian journal of surgery. Journal canadien de chirurgie. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Predicting Work Disability Related to Spinal Pain: A Systematic Review of the Most Clinically Relevant Tools.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Pooled it
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe Subgroups for Targeted Treatment for Back (STarT Back) tool is a screening questionnaire developed to identify modifiable risk factors for back pain disability in primary care. Given the ability of this tool to assist with early identification of patients at high risk, we examined its concurrent convergent and known-group construct validity in tertiary care.
methodsThis was a case-control study of adult (age > 18 yr) patients with and without an active work-related compensation claim recruited from an academic health centre between August 2017 and May 2019. Patients in the study group were assessed by a physiotherapist and an orthopedic surgeon in a spine specialty program designed to assess and treat workplace injuries. The control group included patients referred to an orthopedic spine surgeon in a publicly funded specialty clinic where an advanced practice physiotherapist determined the need for surgical consultation. We used the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to determine the convergent and known-group construct validity of the STarT Back tool.
resultsFifty case and 50 control participants were included. We observed moderate to high association between the STarT Back total score, psychosocial subscore and risk categories and the RMDQ and HADS scores in the expected direction (
conclusionThe STarT Back tool was able to differentiate between patients with and without a compensable injury and patients with different levels of work status. The tool has acceptable convergent and known-group construct validity and can assist in clinical decision-making in a tertiary care setting where adjunct psychologic management may be indicated.
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