Introduction: Chronic pain is a significant social and economic burden, affecting over 630 million people worldwide. The prevalence of chronic low back pain has increased almost 3-fold from 1992 to 2006. There are Slovenian translations of two different disability measures for low back pain patients and no screening tool evaluating level of risk for chronic pain until now. Purpose: Primary purpose of the master thesis was to translate Keele STarT Back Screening Tool to Slovene language and to investigate its reproducibility as well as floor and ceiling effects. Secondary purpose was to establish recommendation for patients with low back pain including short information about low back pain and instructions for self-help. Methods: Keele STarT Back Screening Tool was formally translated into Slovene language following a multistep approach for forward and backward translation. Reproducibility was assessed using the specific agreement. Content validity was analyzed using floor and ceiling effects. Based on literature review we established short information about low back pain and instructions for self-help. Results: In total 42 patients were included. Based on Keele STarT Back Screening Tool 42,9 % were categorized in the »low risk« subgroup, 33,3 % »medium risk« and 23,8 % »high risk«. The reproducibility had the specific agreement of 91,4 % for »low risk«, 85,7 % for »medium rist« and 95,2 % for »high risk« subgroup. For the content validity, we found no floor and ceiling effects were present. Discussion and conclusion: Keele STarT Back Screening Tool was successfully translated into Slovene language. The test has excellent reproducibility and no floor and ceiling effects. Usage of STarT Back Screening tool in clinical practice will substantially improve triage and treatment of patients with low back pain and reduce work absenteeism due to low back pain. With the proper triage patients will receive suitable treatment for their condition sooner. Further studies are needed to assess predictive validity. Authors have found that Keele STarT Back and similar tools underestimate risk level for chronic pain.
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