Exploring the association between patient-drawn pain diagrams and psychological and physical health variables: A large-scale study of patients with low back pain.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite the use of Patient-Drawn Pain Drawings (PDPDs) in clinical settings, their validity as indicators of psychological distress remains debated. We aimed to assess the association between PDPD areas and physical health and psychological variables.

Methods

This study analysed digitally-drawn PDPDs from 15,345 chronic low back pain (LBP) patients at a Danish outpatient hospital unit. We employed a novel quantitative approach to calculate four log-transformed geometric pain areas for each PDPD. We assessed six psychological constructs and seven physical health variables. Associations were modelled using multivariable linear regression.

Results

Increasing leg pain intensity (estimates from 0.12 to 0.25), disability (estimates from 0.3 to 0.14), and pain dur

SUBMITTER: Harsted S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11671319 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature