Outcome Measures Science

Outcome measures are important for both post-treatment assesment and ongoing care. These are used to assess the effectiveness of passive and active interventions.

Basic outcome measures include visual analogue scale (VAS), range of motion (ROM) and activities/functional disabilities.

A VAS for pain is used visually during new patient induction for education and baseline quantification purposes. Using a verbal VAS (pain score out of 10) during treatment and post is a quick quantitiative measure of response and progress. ROM is estimated and coded but may be measured with a goniometer in more complex cases (e.g. straight leg raise in low back pain with radiculopathy).

Functional activities and or disabilities provide useful tools for identifying problems and goals for treatments and as a measure of progress or deterioration. They are also very important for inspiring patients to perform active interventions, especially those linked to functional goals. These, VAS and ROM are useful to increase patient and practitioner awareness of progress and as a documentation tool.

More formal tools include:

Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire (ÖMPQ) can be found here.

© 2021 Tim Young Chiro & Fleximan Manikin