Bulletin
of the Multinational Center
of Quality of Life Research № 5-6

T.V. Chernysheva , G.G. Bagirova

Validation of the Russian version the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire for patients with low back pain

The purpose of the study was to evaluate psychometric characteristics of the Russian version of the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire for patients with low back pain (LBP).
Total of 100 patients with the chronic syndrome LBP caused by osteochondrosis of a backbone were included in the study. Mean age of the patients was 45,69 ± 7,61 years, women (77 %) prevailed. Average duration of disease was 10,2 ± 6,01 years, and duration of complication - 4,04 ± 1,75 months. Patients with II radiological stage (R) prevailed.
The assessment of construct validity of the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire was carried out by the factor analysis, "known-groups method" on the basis of construction of hypotheses, the correlation analysis with external criteria and separate clinical parameters.
Reliability of scales was estimated by calculation of Kronbach α coefficient, sensitivity - by the changes between scales in patients' groups having different response to therapy, different clinical data and different self-estimations of patients, and by calculation of Guyatt index. Satisfactory validity and reliability of the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire was shown. High correlation between the scales the questionnaire and similar scales of SF-36 were revealed.
Thus, the Russian version of the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire is a valid, reliable and sensitive instrument to assess quality of life of patients with LBP and can be recommended for the use in clinical practice for quality of life monitoring in LBP patients and evaluation of the effects of therapy.