What is it?
The Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire is a yellow flag screening tool that predicts long term disability and failure to return to work following a soft tissue injury. This helps clinicians identify patients who may need more intensive or multidisciplinary management to achieve desired outcomes. The tool is most sensitive and specific for low back pain, but it can also be used for other musculoskeletal injuries.
Our thoughts:
The “STarT Back Tool” is a similar tool that clinicians may prefer to use for low back pain, as it is shorter than the Orebro and it contains three risk categories rather than utilizing singular cut-off score. However, the Orebro questionnaire remains a validated choice for predicting prognosis for patients with low back pain and has the advantage of being more broadly applicable to other musculoskeletal injuries.
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