Improved quality of life, working ability, and patient satisfaction after a pretreatment multimodal assessment method in patients with mixed chronic muscular pain: a randomized-controlled study.
To investigate whether a pretreatment multimodal (MM) assessment of patients with chronic muscular pain has an impact on treatment outcome.
The present randomized-controlled study evaluated an MM assessment compared with routine multidisciplinary assessment given to a control group. The study population consisted of primary care patients with mixed chronic muscular pain. Variables assessed were: pain intensity, depression, life stress, quality of life (QOL), disability, working ability, and treatment satisfaction. Follow-up was performed at 15 months and 182 patients of 220 (83%) completed the study.
Univariate and multivariate logistic regression showed from baseline to 15 months a significant improvement in QOL as measured by Short-Form 36 in the MM group compared with the control group on the domains of physical function (odds ratio 2.40; 95% confidence interval 1.32-4.37), role physical (2.37; 1.10-5.09), and role emotional (2.05; 1.05-3.96). Working ability improved more significantly in the MM group (46% vs. 35%) and impairment was less (1% vs. 15%) compared with the control group (P=0.016). Satisfaction with the assessment was, on average, higher (P