Dutch Version Fear-Avoidance Component Scale (FACS)

Plain-language summary

Chronic musculoskeletal disorders such as low back and neck pain are responsible for an enormous global burden. Fear-avoidance (FA) can be a predictor for the transition from subacute to chronic low back pain. In patients with neck pain, those who were less fearful about harming their neck, had higher pain tolerance, which might have a positive impact on their level of disability. A new scale, the Fear-Avoidance Component Scale (FACS) was developed by Neblett, Mayer, Hartzell, Williams and Gatchel (2015) to assess FA. It consists of an all-encompassing set of constructs that more effectively deals with all critical issues of the FA concept than current scales do. Current scales have been criticized because of following findings: limited construct validity, little evidence on treatment responsiveness, a lack of evidence-based cut-off scores and items being too narrow or too general. The new scale comprehensively assesses all cognitive, emotional and behavioral components related to the updated version of the FA model by combining items of well-known scales in context of the FA model with items on one's perception of victimization and blame related to an injury. A Dutch version of the FACS is currently lacking. Subsequently, the aim of this study is to investigate different psychometric properties of the generated Dutch version in patients with musculoskeletal disorders.

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