Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia may underestimate task-specific fear of movement in people with and without low back pain.

Introduction: The Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK) is commonly used to assess fear of movement (FoM) in people with low back pain (LBP). However, the TSK does not provide a task-specific measure of FoM, whereas image-based or video-based methods may do so.

Objectives: To compare the magnitude of FoM when assessed using 3 methods (TSK-11, image of lifting, video of lifting) in 3 groups of people: current LBP (LBP), recovered LBP (rLBP), and asymptomatic controls (control).

Methods: Fifty-one participants completed the TSK-11 and rated their FoM when viewing images and videos depicting people lifting objects. Low back pain and rLBP participants also completed the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). Linear mixed models were used to estimate the effects of methods (TSK-11, image, video) and group (control, LBP, rLBP). Linear regression models were used to assess associations between the methods on ODI after adjusting for group. Finally, a linear mixed model was used to understand the effects of method (image, video) and load (light, heavy) on fear.

Results: In all groups, viewing images (P = 0.009) and videos (P = 0.038) elicited greater FoM than that captured by the TSK-11. Only the TSK-11 was significantly associated with the ODI (P < 0.001). Finally, there was a significant main effect of load on fear (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Fear of specific movements (eg, lifting) may be better measured using task-specific measures, such as images and videos, than by task-generic questionnaires, such as the TSK-11. Being more strongly associated with the ODI, the TSK-11 still plays an important role in understanding the impact of FoM on disability.