Functional disability in nonspecific low back pain: The role of pain-related fear and problem-solving skills

Previous studies have shown that pain disability in chronic back pain patie nts is closely associated with pain-related fear and avoidance. This study was aimed at replicating this finding in a sample of low back pain (LBP) pa tients with a new episode of sick leave. In addition, the supplemental valu e of problem solving in predicting pain disability was examined It was furt her hypothesized that problem solving would moderate the effects of daily s tress on pain disability. The results were partly as predicted. Pain-relate d fear, pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, daily stress, and problem sol ving were found to be individually related to functional disability, of whi ch pain intensity and pain catastrophizing were the strongest predictors. P roblem solving neither added predictive value regarding pain disability, no r could the moderating role of problem solving be confirmed Surprisingly, a nd in disagreement with previous findings, pain intensity was found to be c losely related to disability in this sample of LBP patients.