Table 1.
Baseline characteristics
| Patient characteristics | STarT low-risk N = 124 |
STarT medium-risk N = 176 |
STarT high-risk N = 141 |
P-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | 46.8 (11.6) | 45.2 (11.4) | 43.7 (11.0) | 0.029* |
| Gender (male) | 63 (50.8%) | 81 (46.0%) | 66 (46.8%) | 0.705† |
| College-level education (yes) | 41 (33.6%) | 46 (26.6%) | 17 (12.4%) | < 0.001† |
| Employed (yes) | 94 (76.4%) | 136 (78.2%) | 94 (68.6%) | 0.144† |
| Sick leave with LBP, hours during 14 days | 0 [0; 8] | 4.5 [0; 18.5] | 18 [2; 40] | < 0.001ǂ |
| RMDQ score (0–23 points) | 8.7 (4.9) | 14.0 (4.7) | 17.3 (4.2) | < 0.001* |
| Numerical pain rating (0–10 points) | 4.6 (2.1) | 6.3 (2.0) | 7.2 (1.7) | < 0.001* |
| EQ VAS (0–100 points) | 64.4 (20.9) | 57.5 (20.3) | 43.7 (21.8) | < 0.001* |
Note: STarT Back Tool is a patient-reported nine-item questionnaire, which subgroups patients according to risk of complexity and persistent symptoms. *Comparing the low-risk group and the high-risk group and tested by Student’s T-test. †Comparing all groups by Fischer’s Exact test. ǂComparing the low-risk group and the high-risk group and tested by the Mann-Whitney test. Data are mean (sd), number (%), or median [iqr]. The numbers of missing values were as follows: education n = 9, employment status n = 7, sick leave n = 68, numerical pain rating n = 12, and EQ VAS n = 6