Relationship between kinesiophobia and performance in a functional capacity evaluation.

Fear of movement and (re)injury (kinesiophobia) has been postulated to play an important role in the performance in a Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE). This study was performed to analyze the relationship between kinesiophobia and performance in an FCE. Kinesiophobia and FCE performance of 54 male and 10 female patients (mean age 38.0) suffering chronic low back pain (mean length of episode 9.9 months, 93% off work) were assessed. Kinesiophobia was assessed using the Dutch Version of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (scale 17-68). A lifting task and an FCE were operationalizations of avoidance. FCE results were transformed into a single measure using the classification of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (FCE-DOT, scale 1-5). Correlations between the variables were calculated. The results are: kinesiophobia mean 41.6 (SD 7.3), lifting mean 29.5 kg (SD 11.6), FCE-DOT mean 3.6 (SD 0.6). Correlations between kinesiophobia and lifting was r = 0.01 (p = 0.93) and between kinesiophobia and FCE-DOT was rho = -0.04 (p = 0.75). The results indicate that the patients were substantially kinesiophobic, yet they were able to lift a mean of 29.5 kg and were physically able to perform moderate to heavy work. The strength of the correlations was very low. The relationship between kinesiophobia and avoidance, operationalized as lifting and an FCE, could not be confirmed in this study.