Background: Disability questionnaires for LBP-patients mostlyemanate from health professionals and have a content of differentdomains of disability presented as a single sum score, makingit difficult to derive changes within a specific domain. Thisstudy introduces a new back-specific questionnaire, the ProfileFitness Mapping questionnaire (PFM), which was based on patient’sself-reported characteristics of the LBP. The PFM incorporatesboth a functional limitation and a symptom scale, with furthersubdivision of the symptom scale in separate indices for severityand temporal aspects. The aim of the study was to assess theoverall validity of the PFM.

Methods and Results: Chronic LBP-patients (n=193) answered thePFM and four validated back-specific criterion questionnaires.The correlation coefficients between the PFM and the criterionquestionnaires showed good concurrent criterion validity (0.61– 0.83). The best discriminative ability between patientswith different pain severity was demonstrated by the functionallimitation scale of the PFM. Classification according to theICF revealed a high degree of homogeneous item content of thesymptom scale to the domain of impairments, and of the functionallimitation scale to the domain of activity limitations. Wellcentered score distribution indicates that the PFM has the potentialto detect improvement or worsening of symptoms and functionallimitations in chronic LBP-patients.

Conclusion: The results of the study signify that the PFM isa valid indicator of symptoms and functional limitations ofLBP-patients. It provides the combination of a composite totalscore and the possibility of evaluations within specific domainsof disability.