Development of a Short Form of the Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire

STUDY DESIGN: A longitudinal design where the questionnaire was completed at a pretest and predictive ability evaluated with a 1-year follow-up. A second sample was employed to provide a replication. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to validate a short form of the Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire (ÖMSPQ). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Several studies demonstrate the research and clinical utility of the ÖMSPQ. Calls have been made for a shorter form that requires less time in administering. METHODS: The short version was constructed by taking two items from each of the five factors shown to have predictive power. It was then tested against the long form in two samples of people with musculoskeletal pain where one reflects an occupational health care population (N = 324) and the other a primary care population (N = 183) thus providing a built-in replication. All participants completed the ÖMSPQ and were then followed over the course of a year to evaluate disability as measured by sick leave. RESULTS: The correlation between the short and long forms was 0.91. The receiver operating characteristic curve was nearly identical for the long and short versions of the questionnaire (e.g., primary care sample: 0.84 vs. 0.81; occupational sample: 0.72 vs. 0.70). Of those who developed disability, a cutoff of 50 on the short version identified 85% in the occupational and 83% in the primary care samples which was nearly as good as the full version. CONCLUSION: The short form of the ÖMSPQ is appropriate for clinical and research purposes, since it is nearly as accurate as the longer version.