Back Pain Quiz
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- I have no fever, chills, unusual sweating, or unexplained appetite or weight change
- I feel somewhat more tired than usual, without fever or chills
- I have persistent night sweats, reduced appetite, or a recurring raised temperature
- I have a measured fever or shaking chills and feel seriously unwell, confused, or unusually weak
- My leg strength feels normal
- A leg feels tired sooner, but I can complete my usual movements
- A leg occasionally gives way, or stairs and rising from a chair have become noticeably harder
- I have new or worsening weakness, foot dragging, or difficulty lifting the front of my foot
- It stays in my back
- It reaches the buttock or hip area
- It travels into one thigh but generally stays above the knee
- It shoots below the knee into the calf, ankle, foot, or toes
Back Pain Quiz - Description and methodology of the test
People deciding whether their current symptoms deserve closer attention can use this lumbar symptom questionnaire to organize what they have noticed and what has changed. The back pain quiz brings nerve-like symptoms, persistence, daily function, and warning signs together, helping the respondent decide which details to discuss. It can also make changes over time easier to describe before clinical assessment.
What This Assessment Measures
This assessment functions as a back pain symptom questionnaire, summarizing nerve-related features, persistence, daily impact, and selected warning signs. Questions cover symptoms spreading into the buttock, leg, or foot; altered sensation; weakness; changes with coughing or straining; duration; sleep; walking; daily tasks; trauma; general illness; health history; and bladder, bowel, or groin-area changes.
Pain extending into the buttock, leg, or foot matters when symptoms start in the lower back. The result indicates whether the pattern is localized, persistent, disruptive, nerve-like, or potentially urgent.
The three displayed summaries are:
- Nerve-Related Features (0-15) summarizes radiating pain, altered sensation, or weakness: 0 = Back-localized pattern; 1-2 = Limited nerve-like features; 3-15 = Clinical review advised.
- Persistence and Daily Impact (0-15) reflects duration and disruption: 0 = Improving / limited impact; 1-2 = Ongoing effect; 3-15 = Assessment recommended.
- Urgent Warning Signs (0-15) captures selected concerning symptoms: 0 = No listed indicators; 1-2 = Relevant context; 3-15 = Prompt action.
Methodology and Evidence Base
Each question offers four ordered choices from absent or less concerning symptoms, events, or health contexts to more concerning descriptions. The respondent selects the closest description; selections are grouped into displayed summaries, without inferring an unstated answer-to-point conversion.
One concerning response overrides the total. A zero on the warning-sign summary means none of its listed indicators was endorsed, not that serious illness is excluded. Rapidly worsening weakness, groin numbness, severe deterioration, or inability to move safely requires urgent or emergency assessment.
The method is conceptually consistent with Henschke et al. (2009) on serious spinal pathology, Bardin, King, and Maher (2017) on primary-care triage, and Downie et al. (2013) on red-flag limitations. The questionnaire is not an adaptation of those studies; they provide context, not validation.
Walking, personal care, sleep, and activity overlap conceptually with Fairbank and Pynsent's (2000) Oswestry Disability Index, but this questionnaire is not that instrument.
Self-reported answers vary with current context, recall, and wording; displayed totals are unvalidated reflective summaries, not clinical cutoffs, and this online back-pain assessment cannot establish a cause. It highlights patterns for review.
- Henschke N, Maher CG, Refshauge KM, Herbert RD, Cumming RG, Bleasel J, York J, Das A, McAuley JH. Prevalence of and screening for serious spinal pathology in patients presenting to primary care settings with acute low back pain. Arthritis & Rheumatism. 2009;60(10):3072-3080. 10.1002/art.24853
- Bardin LD, King PH, Maher CG. Diagnostic triage for low back pain: a practical approach for primary care. Medical Journal of Australia. 2017;206(6):268-273. 10.5694/mja16.00828
- Downie A, Williams CM, Henschke N, Hancock MJ, Ostelo RWJ, de Vet HCW, Macaskill P, Irwig L, van Tulder MW, Koes BW, Maher CG. Red flags to screen for malignancy and fracture in patients with low back pain: systematic review. BMJ. 2013;347:f7095. 10.1136/bmj.f7095
- Fairbank JC, Pynsent PB. The Oswestry Disability Index. Spine. 2000;25(22):2940-2952. 10.1097/00007632-200011150-00017