Papers of the Week

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a leading cause of disability. The management guidelines for the management of CLBP often recommend optimizing physical activity (PA). Among a subsample of patients with CLBP, central sensitization (CS) is present. However, knowledge about the association between PA intensity patterns, CLBP, and CS is limited. The objective PA computed by conventional approaches (e.g. cut-points) may not be sensitive enough to explore this association. This study aimed to investigate PA intensity patterns in patients with CLBP and low or high CS (CLBP-, CLBP+, respectively) by using advanced unsupervised machine learning approach, Hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM).