From Impairment to Disability: Unveiling Predictors for Movement Control Impairment Subgroup of Nonspecific Low Back Pain.

Objective: To identify the factors influencing the functional disability among individuals with the movement control impairment (MCI) subgroup of nonspecific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP).

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Outpatient department of physiotherapy under a rehabilitation institute.

Participants: The study recruited 66 individuals (N=66) with NSCLBP related to the MCI, specifically with sagittal plane impairment, based on the eligibility criteria.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main outcome measures: After adjusting for potential confounders, the multiple linear regression analysis was performed by regressing the functional disability on a subset of predicting variables such as sagittal lumbosacral (L5-S1) intervertebral rotation and translation motions, pain intensity, fear-avoidance beliefs, and health-related quality of life (physical and mental health).

Results: Individuals with MCI had moderate to severe functional disability with a mean score of 41.41% (SD, 9.69). Multivariable linear regression analysis showed that factors such as high values of pain intensity (B=3.57; t=4.10) and L5-S1 translation motion (B=1.76; t=2.50) alongside low values of L5-S1 rotation motion (B=-0.71; t=-2.72), physical health (B=-0.57; t=-3.53), and mental health (B=-0.38; t=-4.54), all account for 62.1% (adj. R²=0.621) of the overall variance in functional disability among individuals with MCI, excluding the fear-avoidance beliefs.

Conclusions: The functional disability among individuals with the MCI subgroup of NSCLBP is predicted by pain intensity, sagittal L5-S1 intervertebral motions, and health-related quality of life, whereas fear-avoidance beliefs do not. Mental health is the strongest predictor of disability, followed by pain intensity, physical health, and sagittal L5-S1 intervertebral rotation and translation motions among individuals with MCI. This highlights the importance of addressing these factors to manage disability among individuals with MCI effectively.