The Northwick Park Questionnaire

Original Editor - Boris Alexandra

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Definition/Description[edit | edit source]

The Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (NPQ) measures the neck pain and the consequent patient disabilities. It’s easy to complete, simply to score and it provides an objective measure to evaluate outcome and to monitor symptoms in patients with acute or chronic neck pain over time. It was developed at Northwick Park Hospital in Middlesex England.

The questionnaire is divided in nine five-part sections. Namely : 1) neck pain intensity, 2) neck pain and sleeping, 3) pins and needles or numbness in the arms at night, 4) duration of symptoms, 5) carrying, 6) reading and watching television, 7) working and/or housework, 8) social activities and 9) driving. At the end there’s a tenth question which aims to compare the current state to the state when the questionnaire was last completed[1].

Intended Population[edit | edit source]

It is a valid scale can be used with people who suffer from neck; pain mechanical or non specific neck pain, the goal of this questionnaire is to find out how bad the neck pain is and how it has affected the Activities of Daily Living or the ability to manage in everyday life[1][2].

Method of Use[edit | edit source]

The patients have to fill in the questionnaire. Each parameter is divided in five answer possibilities with points from 0 till 4. 0 is significant for no pain and 4 is significant for worst pain. There is only one answer per parameter possible.

The neck pain score is the sum of the points scored for the first nine questions.
Question 9 (about the driving) is not applicable if the patient doesn’t drive a car in good health.
• If the nine questions are answered:
NPQ percentage = ((neck pain score) / 36) x 100%.
• If the first eight questions are answered:
NPQ percentage = ((neck pain score) / 32) x 100%.

The interpretation is done by the physiotherapist. The minimum score is 0.The maximum score is 36 if all nine questions were answered and 32 if only the first eight questions were answered. The percentage ranges from 0% to 100%. The higher the percentage, the greater the disability and the pain [1].

Evidence[edit | edit source]

Reliability[edit | edit source]

Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire demonstrated high level of internal consistency[1]and sensitivity to change, also different versions of scale proved it has an good to excellent test retest reliability as; in Turkish, Chines[3], Korean, Spanish[4], Argentine[2], and Urdu language[5][6].

Validity[edit | edit source]

Construct validity was good and has a positive correlation with the neck disability index, neck pain and disability index scale, and numeric pain rating scale. The correlation between NPQ-U and neck disability index- U was strong (r = 0.89)[5] that is similar to findings of previous studies[6]. In addition to good content validity[3].

Responsiveness[edit | edit source]

NPQ can be used for different levels of severity[7] and to track changes in patients' conditions progress and clinical monitoring over time[1][5].

Link[edit | edit source]

The Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Leak AM, Cooper J, Dyer S, Williams KA, Turner-Stokes L, Frank AO. The Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire, devised to measure neck pain and disability. Rheumatology. 1994 May 1;33(5):469-74.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Aguirre MV, Rodríguez MG, Clarett M, Iribarne JI, Martínez M, Battistotti R, López de Arcaute AS, Adarves R, Orsini E. Cultural adaptation and Argentine validation of the Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire in the hospitals of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Revista de la Facultad de Ciencias Medicas (Cordoba, Argentina). 2013 Jan 1;70(2):76-82.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Yeung PL, Chiu TT, Leung AS. Use of modified Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire in patients with postirradiation neck disability: validation study. Head & neck. 2004 Dec;26(12):1031-7.
  4. Gonzalez T, Balsa A, de Murieta JS, Zamorano E, González I, Martin-Mola E. Spanish version of the Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire: reliability and validity. Clinical and experimental rheumatology. 2001 Jan 1;19(1):41-6.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Farooq MN, Naz S, Kousar A, Shahzad K. Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Northwick park neck pain questionnaire to Urdu language. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2023 Jun 5;24(1):458.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Wlodyka-Demaille S, Poiraudeau S, Catanzariti JF, Rannou F, Fermanian J, Revel M. French translation and validation of 3 functional disability scales for neck pain. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation. 2002 Mar 1;83(3):376-82.
  7. Sim J, Jordan K, Lewis M, Hill J, Hay EM, Dziedzic K. Sensitivity to change and internal consistency of the Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire and derivation of a minimal clinically important difference. The Clinical journal of pain. 2006 Nov 1;22(9):820-6.