Prevalence and associations of kinesiophobia with patient reported outcomes and mobility measures in axial spondyloarthritis.

Objective: To investigate prevalence and associations of kinesiophobia on patients with axSpA, and its relation to global functioning and health, disease activity, function, spinal mobility and physical activity in comparison to healthy controls (HC).

Methods: Cross-sectional, observational study in which consecutive axSpA patients with axSpA (n=100) and 20 healthy controls (HC) were examined by the Tampa scale of kinesiophobia (TSK), and the Fear avoidance belief questionnaire (FABQ). Patient reported outcomes and objective assessments of disease activity physical function, global health and functioning as well as the BASMI, the AS physical performance index (ASPI), the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and Epionics SPINE (ES) measurements, including range of motion (RoM) and kinematics (RoK) were collected.

Results: AxSpA patients showed higher TSK (25.5±6.8 vs. 14.0±5.1) and FABQ scores (40.1±22 vs. 3.1±6.9) compared to HC, all P≤0.001. Categorical analyses of kinesiophobia levels revealed that patients with higher levels performed significantly worse in ASPI and SPPB tasks, and they also showed impairments in BASMI and ES measures. TSK and FABQ scores correlated with ASAS HI (r=0.45 and r=0.52) and BASFI (r=0.38 and r=0.44), but not with ASPI, SPPB and RoK. Weak correlations were found for BASMI (r=0.24 and r=0.38) and BASDAI (both r=0.35).

Conclusions: Kinesiophobia seems to be a clinically relevant problem of axSpA patients, since the mobility of patients with moderate to high TSK and FABQ scores was much more impaired in this study. Of interest, the level of kinesiophobia showed stronger correlations with physical function, global functioning and health than with mobility and PA.