The chronic pain patient and functional assessment: use of the 6-Minute Walk Test in a multidisciplinary pain clinic

Abstract

Objective:

For chronic pain treatment, guidelines and regulatory agencies have defined functional improvement as a primary goal, especially when chronic opioid therapy is used. Functional improvement is frequently evaluated by qualitative questioning. This pilot study sought to establish a simple and inexpensive measure of functional change for a chronic pain population.

Methods:

Using a multidisciplinary pain clinic standard physical therapy approach for all entering chronic pain patients, multiple functional tests were performed, including the 6-Minute Walk Test. Data was collected by retrospective chart review, at entry to the clinic and 3–6 months later and compared using simple t-test statistics on 45 patients.

Results:

The average distance walked at center admission was 272.87 yards. At 3–6 month clinical retesting, the distance had improved significantly to 339.04 yards (p < 0.0001). NRS scores at 3–6 months were also improved from baseline (p < 0.001).

Conclusions:

While suggestive, this study has significant limitations. Not all patients entering into the clinic were included in this study, only those who had completed the necessary testing. Further, chart reviews are complicated by the accuracy with which data is recorded. This study is intriguing and presents positive data for a simple, inexpensive and reproducible test for physical functioning in a chronic pain population. Further study is warranted based on these descriptive results.

Keywords::

• Chronic pain
• Functional assessment
• Opioids
• 6-Minute Walk

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This study was not funded.

Authorship: J.F.P. – concept and design, drafting, editing; K.L.K. – concept and design, statistics, drafting, editing; S.M. – concept and design, drafting and editing, performing PT testing.

John F. Peppin^a,b

Steve Marcum^c

Kenneth L. Kirsh^a,d

Declaration of financial/other relationships

J.F.P., S.M., and K.L.K. have disclosed that they have no significant relationships with or financial interests in any commercial companies related to this study or article.

CMRO peer reviewers may have received honoraria for their review work. The peer reviewers on this manuscript have disclosed that they have no relevant financial relationships.