Are catastrophizing and kinesiophobia associated with disability in patients with chronic neck pain ?

Abstract

[Objective] This study was aimed at investigating whether catastrophizing and kinesiophobia might be involved in the disability disorders of patients with chronic neck pain. [Methods] This cross-sectional study included 99 participants with chronic neck pain, of whom 35 had a traumatic onset and 64 had a non-traumatic onset. The participants completed the questionnaires on Neck Disability Index (NDI), pain intensity, pain duration, Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), and Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK). Differences in ordinal data between the groups were determined using the Mann-Whitney U test. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis (stepwise method) was used for examining the relative contribution of each variable to disability. [Results] The traumatic group had significant symptoms for a shorter duration of pain as compared with the non-traumatic group. The multiple regression analysis revealed that the NDI can be significantly predicted by catastrophizing and pain intensity. [Conclusions] This study suggests that in the patients with chronic neck pain, catastrophizing was associated with disability, regardless of traumatic or non-traumatic onset.