Responsiveness of pain, active range of motion, and disability in patients with acute nonspecific low back pain

Many parameters are now used for investigations in clinical settings, such as pain, active range of motion (AROM), and disability, but it is not yet known which parameters are responsive in patients with acute nonspecific low back pain (LBP). This study aimed to investigate the responsiveness of pain, AROM, and disability in patients with acute nonspecific LBP. Fifty subjects were assessed for pain, AROM, and disability at baseline and after 6 weeks. The effect size (ES) was calculated for each parameter. Also, patient’s perception of change was collected after 6 weeks for correlating it with change scores for each parameter. The most responsive parameter for detecting the change in patients with acute nonspecific LBP was pain (ES, 1.57) and disability (ES, 0.93). However, AROM was proved to be less responsive. This study indicated that pain and disability were responsive in detecting the changes in patients with acute nonspecific LBP over time.