Abstract
Background: Self-reported questionnaires have become popular measures in assessing disability in patients with low back pain (LBP). Roland-Morris Questionnaire (RMQ) is one of the internationally accepted, self-reporting questionnaire which demonstrates good psychometric properties. Objectives: The present study intended to evaluate a face to face interview applying Arabic version of the RMQ, and comparing it with a modified version of RMQ (RMQV), and whether the purely subjective RMQ scores correlate with symptoms and signs which have predictive or prognostic values. Design: case-series study Methods and materials: Case-series study conducted on seventy-two patients with chronic LBP at Ibn-Sina Teaching Hospital in Mosul city. Physical examination at rheumatology outpatient clinic performed for every patient, and the patients are allowed to answer the questions of RMQ through a direct investigator-patient Arabic conversation. The disability measured by the RMQ subdivided into: mild (0-8), moderate (9-16) and severe (17-24). An individualized literature review performed for clinical features which have predictive or prognostic values in LBP, and including these features in the clinical evaluation of patients in the current study. Results: The results showed that the Arabic conversational RMQ have acceptable reliability and RMQV have excellent reliability (Cronbach’s alpha values=0.72 and 0.94 respectively). There was a significant direct correlation between these two questionnaires (r=0.861; p-value<0.001). However, we found a significant difference between them (p-value<0.01). The scores of the RMQ and RMQV correlate moderately with a score of the predictive features (r=0.503; p-value < 0.01 and 0.530; p-value Conclusion: The study found that the modified version (RMQV) has higher reliability than the original one. Also, the RMQV showed a better correlation with the narrow-angle straight leg raising test, and its mild and moderate subgroups have significant differences regarding the duration and pain intensity of the current episode of LBP. Other measured properties look similar between the two questionnaires.
