Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38910169›Full record

ArticleEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2024

Prevalence of weakness and factors mediating discrepancy between reported and observed leg weakness in people with sciatica.

Lucy Dove, Georgios Baskozos, Thomas Kelly, Elaine Buchanan, Annina B Schmid

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Article in European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Lucy DoveNuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, The University of Oxford, West Wing Level 6, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2329-7199
Georgios BaskozosNuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, The University of Oxford, West Wing Level 6, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9237-5878
Thomas KellyIntegrated Pain and Spinal Service (IPASS), Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Berkshire, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5678-5228
Elaine BuchananOxford Spinal Surgery Unit, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5378-808X
Annina B SchmidNuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, The University of Oxford, West Wing Level 6, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK. annina.schmid@neuro-research.ch.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7759-0211

Funding

Medical Research Council MR/W027003/1MRF Emerging Leaders PrizeMRF MRF-160-0013-ELP-SCHM-C0842NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre Preparatory Research FellowshipWellcome Trust 222101Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship 222101/Z/20/Z
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeTo establish the prevalence and agreement between reported and observed leg weakness in people with sciatica. To establish which factors mediate any identified difference between reported and observed leg weakness in people with sciatica.

methods68 people with a clinical diagnosis of sciatica, records from spinal service, secondary care NHS Hospital, England, UK reviewed. Primary outcome measures were the sciatica bothersome index for reported leg weakness and the Medical Research Council scale for observed weakness. Agreement was established with Cohen's Kappa and intraclass correlation coefficient. Potential factors that may mediate a difference between reported and observed weakness included leg pain, sciatica bothersome index sensory subscale, age, hospital anxiety and depression subscale for anxiety.

results85% of patients reported weakness but only 34% had observed weakness. Cohen's Kappa (0.066, 95% CI - 0.53, 0.186; p = 0.317)] and ICC 0.213 (95% CI - 0.26, 0.428, p = 0.040) both showed poor agreement between reported and observed weakness. The difference between reported and observed measures of weakness was mediated by the severity of leg pain (b = 0.281, p = 0.024) and age (b = 0.253, p = 0.042).

conclusionThere is a high prevalence of reported leg weakness in people with sciatica, which is not reflected in observed clinical measures of weakness. Differences between reported and observed weakness may be driven by the severity of leg pain and age. Further work needs to establish whether other objective measures can detect patient reported weakness.

Indexed as

Muscle WeaknessSciaticaAdultAgedFemaleHumansLegMaleMiddle AgedPrevalencePrevalenceRadicular leg painRadiculopathySciaticaWeakness

Identifiers

PMID38910169
PMCPMC7616658

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.