Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb 1;164(2):325-335.
doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002703. Epub 2022 Jun 2.

The Canadian version of the National Institutes of Health minimum dataset for chronic low back pain research: reference values from the Quebec Low Back Pain Study

Adriana Angarita-Fonseca  1   2 , M Gabrielle Pagé  2   3 , Carolina B Meloto  4 , Erika Lauren Gentile  5 , Guillaume Léonard  6 , Hugo Massé-Alarie  7 , Iulia Tufa  8   9 , Jean-Sébastien Roy  7 , Laura S Stone  4   10 , Manon Choinière  2   3 , Maryse Fortin  11 , Mathieu Roy  5 , Monica Sean  12 , Pascal Tétreault  12 , Pierre Rainville  13 , Simon Deslauriers  14 , Anaïs Lacasse  1 ; Quebec Back Pain Consortium; Quebec Back Pain Consortium
Affiliations

The Canadian version of the National Institutes of Health minimum dataset for chronic low back pain research: reference values from the Quebec Low Back Pain Study

Adriana Angarita-Fonseca et al. Pain. .

Abstract

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) minimum dataset for chronic low back pain (CLBP) was developed in response to the challenge of standardizing measurements across studies. Although reference values are critical in research on CLBP to identify individuals and communities at risk of poor outcomes such as disability, no reference values have been published for the Quebec (Canada) context. This study was aimed to (1) provide reference values for the Canadian version of the NIH minimum dataset among individuals with CLBP in Quebec, both overall and stratified by gender, age, and pain impact stratification (PIS) subgroups, and (2) assess the internal consistency of the minimum data set domains (pain interference, physical function, emotional distress or depression, sleep disturbance, and PIS score). We included 2847 individuals living with CLBP who completed the baseline web survey of the Quebec Low Back Pain Study (age: 44.0 ± 11.2 years, 48.1% women) and were recruited through social media and healthcare settings. The mean score was 6.1 ± 1.8 for pain intensity. Pain interference, physical function, emotional distress or depression, sleep disturbance, and PIS scores were 12.9 ± 4.1, 14.4 ± 3.9, 9.8 ± 4.4, 13.0 ± 3.6, and 26.4 ± 6.6, respectively. Emotional distress or depression showed floor effects. Good-to-excellent internal consistency was found overall and by language, gender, and age subgroups for all domains (alpha: 0.81-0.93) and poor-to-excellent internal consistency for PIS subgroups (alpha: 0.59-0.91). This study presents reference values and recommendations for using the Canadian version of the NIH minimum dataset for CLBP that can be useful for researchers and clinicians.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

M.G. Pagé, H. Massé-Alarie, and M. Roy received funding from Pfizer for work unrelated to this study. M.G. Pagé also received an honorarium from Canopy Growth. The Chronic Pain Epidemiology Laboratory led by A. Lacasse and receiving A. Angarita-Fonseca is funded by the Fondation de l’Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (FUQAT), in partnership with local businesses: the Pharmacie Jean-Coutu de Rouyn-Noranda (community pharmacy) and Glencore Fonderie Horne (copper smelter). The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Sponsorships or competing interests that may be relevant to content are disclosed at the end of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flowchart of the study.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Histograms of each domain of the NIH minimum dataset distributions in all subjects (n = 2847).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bartley EJ, Fillingim RB. Sex differences in pain: a brief review of clinical and experimental findings. Br J Anaesth 2013;111:52–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bath B, Trask C, McCrosky J, Lawson J. A biopsychosocial profile of adult Canadians with and without chronic back disorders: a population-based analysis of the 2009-2010 Canadian Community Health Surveys. Biomed Res Int 2014;2014:919621. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beaton DE, Bombardier C, Guillemin F, Ferraz MB. Guidelines for the process of cross-cultural adaptation of self-report measures. Spine 2000;25:3186–91. - PubMed
    1. Bernstein DN, Atkinson J, Fear K, Baumhauer JF, Mesfin A, Rubery PT, Hammert WC. Determining the generalizability of the PROMIS depression domain's floor effect and completion time in patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery. Clin Orthop Relat Res 2019;477:2215–25. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Boer A, Dutmer AL, Schiphorst Preuper HR, van der Woude LHV, Stewart RE, Deyo RA, Reneman MF, Soer R. Measurement properties of the NIH-minimal dataset Dutch language version in patients with chronic low back pain. Spine 2017;42:1472–7. - PubMed

Publication types