Investigating the Responsiveness of the Persian Version of the Core Outcome Measure Index Neck Questionnaire in People With Non-specific Chronic Neck Pain

Abstract

Background and Objectives: This study aims to investigate the responsiveness of the Persian version of the core outcome measure index (COMI) neck questionnaire in patients with chronic non-specific neck pain. Methods: The participants included 104 subjects in the age range of 18 to 15 years with non-specific chronic neck pain who were undergoing physiotherapy intervention. The participants received and completed the Persian version of the COMI neck questionnaire before the first session of physiotherapy treatment. After completing the treatment sessions, the subjects were re-evaluated and completed the Persian version of the COMI neck questionnaire. In this study, to evaluate external responsiveness, in addition to completing the mentioned questionnaire, the participants received and completed the global rating of change questionnaire in the final session of the treatment. The internal responsiveness was evaluated by performing the paired t-test in addition to evaluating changes in the Persian version of COMI neck scores before and after treatment and calculating the effect size consisting of standard response mean and Cohen d. Meanwhile, the external responsiveness was calculated via the receiver operating characteristic curve and the correlation analysis. Results: The Persian version of the COMI neck questionnaire has acceptable external responsiveness. The standard response mean was large and the Cohen d was very large. Significant changes were observed between the scores of the COMI neck questionnaire before and after the treatment. In this study, the minimal clinically important difference was 1.82. Also, a good correlation was found between COMI neck and the global rating of change questionnaire. Conclusion: The Persian version of the COMI neck questionnaire has acceptable responsiveness. This questionnaire can be used to study the effects of physiotherapy intervention in patients with chronic non-specific neck pain.