• Mitsuru Fukui, Kazuhiro Chiba, Mamoru Kawakami, Shin-ichi Kikuchi, Shin-ichi Konno, Masabumi Miyamoto, Atsushi Seichi, Tadashi Shimamura, Osamu Shirado, Toshihiko Taguchi, Kazuhisa Takahashi, Katsushi Takeshita, Toshikazu Tani, Yoshiaki Toyama, Eiji Wada, Kazuo Yonenobu, Takashi Tanaka, and Yoshio Hirota.
• Laboratory of Statistics, Osaka City University Faculty of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.
• J Orthop Sci. 2008 May 1;13(3):173-9.

BackgroundThe Japanese Orthopaedic Association decided to revise the JOA score for low back pain and to develop a new outcome measure. In February 2002, the first survey was performed with a preliminary questionnaire consisting of 60 evaluation items. Based on findings of that survey, 25 items were selected for a draft of the JOA Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ). The second survey was performed to confirm the reliability of the draft questionnaire. This article further evaluates the validity of this questionnaire and establishes a measurement scale.MethodsThe subjects of this study consisted of 355 patients with low back disorders of any type (201 men, 154 women; mean age 50.7 years). Each patient was asked to fill in a self-administered questionnaire. Superficial validity was checked in terms of the completion rate for filling out the entire questionnaire. Factor analysis was then performed to evaluate the validity of the questionnaire and establish a measurement scale.ResultsAs a result of the factor analysis, 25 items were categorized into five factors. The factors were named based on the commonality of the items: social function, mental health, lumbar function, walking ability, and low back pain. To establish a measurement scale for each factor, we determined the coefficient for each item so the difference between the maximum factor scores and minimum factor scores was approximately 100. We adjusted the formula so the maximum for each factor score was 100 and the minimum was 0.ConclusionsWe confirmed the validity of the JOA Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire and established a measurement scale.

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