Measuring Change in Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: What the NPRS, ODI, and RMDQ Can and Cannot Tell You

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants who use pain and disability questionnaires with older adults who have lumbar spinal stenosis and want to understand what the current evidence says about how those questionnaires behave.

Licensed physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in outpatient orthopaedic, spine, and geriatric settings. Physical therapist assistants work under the direction of a physical therapist; interpretation of measures for evaluation and plan-of-care decisions rests with the supervising therapist.

Intended audience

Physical Therapy

Level

Introductory

Delivery format

Online, asynchronous, self-paced course: interactive reading with audio or video, and a scored post-test.

Based on

Young I, Dunning J, Escaloni J, Maselli F, Prall J, Mourad F, Hutting N, Fernández-de-las-Peñas C. Clinimetric analysis of the numeric pain rating scale, Oswestry disability index, and the Roland-Morris disability questionnaire in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis treated with conservative interventions. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 2025. Open access under a CC BY license.

This course reports only what that article states. It adds no outside data, no other trials, and no clinical instructions of its own. Where the authors make recommendations, those recommendations are attributed to them.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Describe the patient population, the setting, and the three patient-reported outcome measures examined in this clinimetric analysis of lumbar spinal stenosis.
2. State what the authors reported about the reliability, responsiveness, and meaningful change thresholds of the numeric pain rating scale, the Oswestry disability index, and the Roland-Morris disability questionnaire.
3. Explain the limitations the authors placed on their findings, including why they urged caution about the Roland-Morris disability questionnaire threshold.

1. Start Here: how this course works and what the source is
2. Podcast: Measuring Change in Lumbar Spinal Stenosis (about nine minutes)
3. Why Outcome Measures Need Separate Testing in Lumbar Spinal Stenosis
4. Inside the Analysis: Patients, Anchors, and Follow-Up Points
5. What the Analysis Found: Stability, Sensitivity to Change, and Meaningful Change Points
6. Where the Findings Stop: Limits of a Secondary Analysis
7. Putting the Three Measures Side by Side in Outpatient Practice
8. Key Takeaways
9. Post-test and course evaluation

Quinn Millington, PT, DPT, ECS is the instructor of record: the licensed clinician who reviewed this course and signed off on it. The name and credentials print on the certificate.

Disclosures. This course was developed by The ConEd Solution, which has a financial interest in its sale. No outside funding or sponsorship was received. The instructor of record has no affiliation with the authors of the source publication or their institutions.

This course awards 0.5 contact hours (30 min). How you earn them:

1. Complete the course. Every lesson, in order.
2. Pass the post-test. Score 80% or higher. Retakes are allowed.
3. Complete the evaluation. A short form rating each learning objective and the course.
4. Download your certificate. It is issued on completion and stays available in My Account.

The episode time is its measured length. Reading, post-test and evaluation times are estimates.

This course is designed to satisfy the quality requirements state boards set for continuing education. Requirements vary by state, and confirming that a course fits your renewal is up to you. Each state’s own acceptance statement is in the credit panel on this page.

1. Young I, Dunning J, Escaloni J, Maselli F, Prall J, Mourad F, Hutting N, Fernández-de-las-Peñas C. Clinimetric analysis of the numeric pain rating scale, Oswestry disability index, and the Roland-Morris disability questionnaire in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis treated with conservative interventions. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 2025. Open access under a CC BY license.
2. This course reports only what that article states. It adds no outside data, no other trials, and no clinical instructions of its own. Where the authors make recommendations, those recommendations are attributed to them.