How well are you recovering? The association between a simple question about recovery and patient reports of pain intensity and pain disability in whiplash-associated disorders.

PURPOSE: There is potential value in developing a brief assessment tool for assessing recovery after musculoskeletal injuries. Our goal was to investigate the association between a one-item global self-assessment of recovery and commonly used measures of recovery status.
METHOD: We followed a cohort of 6,021 adults with acute whiplash-associated disorders for six months. Pain, depression, work status and physical health were assessed at baseline and follow-up. The question "How do you feel you are recovering from your injury?" (six response options from "all better" to "getting much worse") and functional limitations were administered at follow-up.
RESULTS: Responses to the recovery question was associated with our other indices of recovery. Those "all better" had the lowest pain intensity, pain-related limitations, depression and work disability, and the best general physical health. Incrementally poorer recovery ratings on the recovery question were associated with greater pain, functional limitations and depression, poorer physical health and being off work, although "no improvement" and "getting a little worse" were similar. Recovery categories also reflected different degrees of actual improvements over the preceding follow-up period.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that a single recovery question is a useful tool for conducting brief global assessments of recovery of musculoskeletal injuries.