Table 1.

Comparability of usual care (UC) and behavioral graded activity (BGA) treatment groups at baseline. Values are means (standard deviations) unless stated otherwise (RDQ Roland Disability Questionnaire, PCS Pain Catastrophizing Scale, TSK Tampa Scale for Kinisophobia)

Characteristics	UC	BGA
	(n=53)	(n=52)
Age (years)	43.7 (8.8)	42.8 (8.8)
No. (%) of women	19 (35.8)	26 (50.0)
Type of surgery: standard discectomy (%)	70	78
Level of surgery (%)
L4-L5	43.1	49.0
L5-S1	52.9	44.9
Surgical findings (%)
Sequester	38.5	38.8
Protrusion	51.9	49.0
Days of hospitalization	7.7 (2.7)	7.0 (1.3)
Duration of these complaints before surgery: n (%)
≤ 3 months	9 (17)	7 (13)
>3 months	44 (83)	45 (87)
Physiotherapy immediately after surgery (%)	33	42
No. (%) taking pain medication	18 (34)	20 (38)
No. (%) with physiotherapy before surgery	30 (56.6)	32 (60.4)
No. (%) with other treatment before surgery	16 (30.2)	13 (23.9)
No. (%) with paid jobs	37 (69.8)	47 (90.4)
Expectation of allocated treatment (0–10 points)a	6.85 (1.6)	6.9 (1.1)
Confidence with regard to recovery in general: n (%)
Much confidence in recovery	22 (41.5)	21 (40.4)
Moderate confidence in recovery	18 (34.0)	24 (46.2)
No confidence in recovery	3 (5.7)	3 (5.8)
Don't know	10 (18.9)	4 (7.7)
Negative affectivity (0–14 points)	3.7 (4.0)	4.2 (4.1)
Outcome measures
RDQ (0–24 points)	13.5 (4.5)	14.5 (3.7)
TSK (17–68 points)	36.9 (6.8)	35.9 (6.3)
PCS (0–52 points)	16.9 (11.7)	17.1 (10.2)
Main complaint (0–100)	67.4 (15.4)	71.1 (16.5)
No. (%) of patients with pain in back	45 (85)	48 (92)
Severity of pain in back (0–100)	46.7 (27.3)	43.40 (30.0)
No. (%) of patients with sciatica	52 (98)	50 (96)
Severity of sciatica (0–100)	41.3 (30.8)	39.0 (28.2)
Range of motion	81.2 (22.7)	78.1 (22.6)
General Health (Subscale SF-36)	65.6 (20.0)	68.2 (18.4)
Social Functioning (Subscale SF-36)	59.4 (25.3)	56.7 (26.6)

^a Administered after two treatments