The Usefulness of a Self-marking Method for Musculoskeletal Pain in Outpatient Clinic

Oh, Se Wook; Park, Su Jung; Choi, Youn Seon; Cho, Kyung Hwan; Hong, Myung Ho; Chang, Jung Ae; Park, Young Kyu

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Symptoms of musculoskeletal system is a common problem, followed by those of respiratory system. Most patients with problems of musculoskeletal system are examined and treated by a primary doctor. This research was performed to inquire into a method which can increase the effectiveness and the precision of history taking in patients with problems of musculoskeletal system in primary care and also to assess a self-marking method where patients can mark their pain site on a normalized picture. METHODS: In the department of family medicine and rehabilitation of an university hospital in Seoul, 44 patients with musculoskeletal pain on their first visit in an outpatient clinic were asked to put marks on a normalized picture and also mark the degree of pain with a visual analog scale from 0 to 10, before history taking. After history taking, the doctor also marked the spot of the patient's pain on the normalized picture and then compared the spots together. After comparing the two pictures of the doctor's and the patients', they then drew another picture with only one spot to avoid overlapping spots. We compared the differences among the patients in every decade from ages 20 to 60 and divided the value of visual analog scale into 3 groups concerning the spots drawn by patients, and compared the relations between them. RESULTS: The pain spots drawn by doctor only were on the lumbar spine and the shoulder whereas most of pain spots drawn by patients only were on the upper back, the cervical spine, and the lumbar spine. The older the patient and the lower the degree of pain was, the more humerous it had spots. CONCLUSIONS: It is considered that with a general history taking method and a self-marking method, clinical effectiveness will be great to the patients having pain on the abdomen, the cervical spine, and the lumbar spine and to those who are elderly and with lower pain spots.