Sensitivity to Change and Responsiveness of the Global Physiotherapy Examination (GPE-52) in Patients With Long-Lasting Musculoskeletal Pain

The sensitivity to change and the responsiveness of the Global Physiotherapy Examination (GPE-52) were examined in patients with localized and widespread long-lasting musculoskeletal pain. All included patients were on sick leave and constituted the treatment group in a randomized controlled study. Two hundred forty-seven patients (64% women; mean age = 43.6 years, SD = 10.4) were included. At entry, the patients were categorized into 3 groups according to pain localization. Patients who returned fully to work were compared with those who did not. The GPE-52 has composite scores in 5 main domains--posture (8 tests), respiration (8 tests), movement (16 tests), muscle (12 tests), and skin (8 tests)--and was administered before and after 4 weeks of multidisciplinary outpatient treatment and at a 6-month follow-up examination. The first 61 patients also were re-examined after 18 months. In this study, the GPE-52 and its 5 main domains were demonstrated to be sensitive to change, measured 6 and 18 months after treatment, in different groups of patients with long-lasting musculoskeletal pain. Responsiveness to important change, defined in this study as return to work, was found only for the total GPE-52 score and within the movement and respiration domains. Responsiveness to important change was greater in patients with localized pain than in patients with widespread pain. Although the total GPE-52 score was sensitive to change in patients with long-lasting musculoskeletal pain, a shorter test battery including only the respiration and movement domain scores might be appropriate as an outcome measure in intervention studies for patients with long-lasting musculoskeletal pain.