A pilot study to examine the relationship of 3D pain drawings with objective measures in mobility impaired people suffering from low back-pain

摘要

Over the years, an increasing number of the adult population suffers from some form of back pain during their lifetime, something that consecutively has a very important impact on a country's health, as well as economic systems. It is beyond dispute though, that pain is a feeling or emotion that is subjective in nature. Thus, traditional methods of measuring pain are consequently considered to be subjective in their ability to efficiently gather and communicate such pain measurements. As a result, the work presented in this paper attempts to address the aforementioned limitation by presenting a theoretical framework, in which back pain measurements are taken, and the hypothetical association with objective measures, performed with the upcoming technique of pressure mapping, are indicated. A pilot study on wheelchair users to examine our proposed framework was conducted, with results of this pilot study showing that it is a promising solution for the purpose intended, and that it could generally prove to be a significant complementary method for the back pain community.