Outcome Measures in Practice

As part of clinical practice, it is imperative that outcomes are assessed, not only to provide information to the clinician but also to the patient. It is now generally accepted that the focus of documenting outcomes should be placed on those reported by the patient rather than clinical measures that may have little relevance to the patient in his daily life. Because non-specific musculoskeletal conditions are multi-factorial, and affect individual patients in different ways, there is a need to measure several outcomes, and this can lead to burdensome and complex patient self-report questionnaires.

The Bournemouth Questionnaire is a comprehensive multi-dimensional core outcome assessing the patients’ outcomes in the routine clinical setting. It consists of seven scales and has been validated in back and neck pain patients (see references below). Clinicians are encouraged to use the outcome measures. The BQ (baseline) should be used for patients with a new episode of the complaint and in addition to the BQ seven scales, has a number of questions that provide useful information. The BQ (post-treatment) should be used at the clinician’s discretion at stages during and after treatment to map outcomes. It also has some additional questions that provide useful information on the progress and experiences of the patient.

Further details can be obtained from Professor Jennifer Bolton.

Related Publications:

Bolton JE and Breen AC (1999) The Bournemouth Questionnaire: a short-form comprehensive outcome measure. I. Psychometric properties in back pain patients. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 22: 503-510

Bolton JE and Humphreys BK (2002) The Bournemouth Questionnaire: a short-form comprehensive outcome measure. II. Psychometric properties in neck pain patients. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 25: 141-148

Hurst H and Bolton J (2004) Assessing the clinical significance of change scores recorded on subjective outcome measures. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 27: 26-35