Table 2 Patient reported outcomes used for measured of treatment effect on pain and function

Self-rated measure Global Perceived Effect (GPE) of global impression of recovery, with the question: "Compared to when this treatment first started, how would you describe your neck this last week?" (range 0-11) where minus five represents vastly worse, 0 represents unchanged, and five represents completely recovered (Kamper et al., 2010, Stewart et al., 2007a, Geisser et al., 2010) (range 0-11)

To measure perceived change

Neck Disability Index (NDI) [49], with higher scores representing greater perceived disability [58–60] (range 0-50)

To test for change in neck pain and neck disability, related to daily activities

Pain Specific Functioning Scale, comprising three patient-rated important activities, rated from the level of difficulty with lower scores representing better function (range 0-10 scale)

To test for change in self- reported function

Numerical rating scale, with higher scores representing greater pain bothersomeness, (Stewart et al., 2007a, Young et al., 2010) (range 0-10)

To test for change in pain bothersomeness

TAMPA Scale of Kinesiophobia (fear of re-injury due to movement), a psychological distress questionnaire, with a score above 37 indicating a high degree of kinesiophobia (Cleland et al., 2008, Nederhand et al., 2004, Nederhand et al., 2006) (range 17-68),

To test for change in fear of movement

The Impact of Events Scale, [61, 62] (range 0-75)

To test for change in post-traumatic stress symptoms

The Euroqol-5D capturing the patient's perceived state of health, with predefined end-points, high value is good health and low value is bad health [63, 64] (range 0-100)

To test for change in quality of life