SynthesisJournal of occupational rehabilitation2026
Predicting Work Disability Related to Spinal Pain: A Systematic Review of the Most Clinically Relevant Tools.
Synthesis in Journal of occupational rehabilitation, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeMusculoskeletal disorders, especially spinal conditions, are leading causes of disability, contributing significantly to work absenteeism and socio-economic burden. Rehabilitation is essential for promoting sustainable return to work (RTW). However, clinicians need reliable tools with appropriate psychometric properties to determine patients' risk of persistent work disability and tailor interventions. This systematic review objectives were to (1) identify clinically useful questionnaires that enable clinicians to identify individuals with spinal pain (back or neck pain) at risk of work disability, and (2) document the psychometric properties of the identified questionnaires.
methodsA systematic search was conducted in three databases from inception to 01/10/2025, to retrieve relevant studies. Studies were included if they reported self-administered questionnaires with ≤ 15 items predicting RTW outcomes in spinal disorders. Tools were evaluated based on psychometric properties (calibration, discrimination), and pragmatic characteristics (number of items, readability).
resultsSeventeen studies were retrieved including 16 unique questionnaires of which four demonstrated sufficient discrimination capability. From these, the Örebro musculoskeletal pain questionnaire 10-items (ÖMPQ- 10), STarT Back screening tool (SBST), and a single item from the ÖMPQ- 25 demonstrated acceptable to excellent discrimination for low back pain populations, but showed lower discrimination for mixed or neck pain populations.
conclusionThe SBST, ÖMPQ- 10, and single items from the ÖMPQ- 25 performed best in predicting RTW outcomes for low back pain. No questionnaire had sufficient discriminatory capability for neck pain. These results should be interpreted with caution, as the overall risk of bias assessment remains unclear for the OMPQ- 10 and high for the SBST. Further research is necessary to develop or validate tools specific to neck pain and mixed populations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
40238054What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.