• Birgitte Lawaetz Myhrvold, Alice Kongsted, Pernille Irgens, Hilde Stendal Robinson, Magne Thoresen, and Nina Køpke Vøllestad.
• Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
• Spine. 2019 Nov 15; 44 (22): E1298-E1310.

Study DesignA prospective observational study.ObjectiveTo externally validate the prediction model developed by Schellingerhout and colleagues predicting global perceived effect at 12 weeks in patients with neck pain and to update and internally validate the updated model.Summary Of Background DataOnly one prediction model for neck pain has undergone some external validation with good promise. However, the model needs testing in other populations before implementation in clinical practice.MethodsPatients with neck pain (n = 773) consulting Norwegian chiropractors were followed for 12 weeks. Parameters from the original prediction model were applied to this sample for external validation. Subsequently, two random samples were drawn from the full study sample. One sample (n = 436) was used to update the model; by recalibration, removing noninformative covariates, and adding new possible predictors. The updated model was tested in the other sample (n = 303) using stepwise logistic regression analysis. Main outcomes for performance of models were discrimination and calibration plots.ResultsThree hundred seventy patients (47%) in the full study sample reported persistent pain at 12 weeks. The performance of the original model was poor, area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.55 with a Confidence Interval of 0.51-0.59. The updated model included Radiating pain to shoulder and/or elbow, education level, physical activity, consultation-type (first- time, follow-up or maintenance consultation), expected course of neck pain, previous course of neck pain, number of pain sites, and the interaction term Physical activity##Number of pain sites. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.65 with a 95% Confidence Interval of 0.58-0.71 for the updated model.ConclusionThe predictive accuracy of the original model performed insufficiently in the sample of patients from Norwegian chiropractors and the model is therefore not recommended for that setting. Only one predictor from the original model was retained in the updated model, which demonstrated reasonable good performance predicting outcome at 12 weeks. Before considering clinical use, a new external validation is required.Level Of Evidence3.

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