PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Christoph Biele
AU  - Dirk Möller
AU  - Harry von Piekartz
AU  - Toby Hall
AU  - Nikolaus Ballenberger
TI  - Validity of increasing the number of motor control tests within a test battery for discrimination of low back pain conditions in people attending a physiotherapy clinic: a case–control study
AID  - 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032340
DP  - 2019 Nov 01
TA  - BMJ Open
PG  - e032340
VI  - 9
IP  - 11
4099  - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/11/e032340.short
4100  - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/11/e032340.full
SO  - BMJ Open2019 Nov 01; 9
AB  - Objectives To develop a time-efficient motor control (MC) test battery while maximising diagnostic accuracy of both a two-level and three-level classification system for patients with non-specific low back pain (LBP).Design Case–control study.Setting Four private physiotherapy practices in northern Germany.Participants Consecutive males and females presenting to a physiotherapy clinic with non-specific LBP (n=65) were compared with 66 healthy-matched controls.Primary outcome measures Accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, Youden index, positive/negative likelihood ratio, area under the curve (AUC)) of a clinically driven consensus-based test battery including the ideal number of test items as well as threshold values and most accurate items.Results For both the two and three-level categorisation system, the ideal number of test items was 10. With increasing number of failed tests, the probability of having LBP increases. The overall discrimination potential for the two-level categorisation system of the test is good (AUC=0.85) with an optimal cut-off of three failed tests. The overall discrimination potential of the three-level categorisation system is fair (volume under the surface=0.52). The optimal cut-off for the 10-item test battery for categorisation into none, mild/moderate and severe MC impairment is three and six failed tests, respectively.Conclusion A 10-item test battery is recommended for both the two-level (impairment or not) and three-level (none, mild, moderate/severe) categorisation of patients with non-specific LBP.