RMDQ
Summary and structure
The Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) was developed by Martin Roland and Richard Morris in 1983. It is one of the most widely used outcome measures for low back pain worldwide and is recommended in many guidelines and research core sets.
The questionnaire lists 24 everyday situations, such as walking more slowly, needing help to get dressed or sleeping less well because of back pain. The person marks each statement that describes them today. The score is the number of statements marked, from 0 to 24.
Interpretation:
Higher scores indicate greater disability due to back pain
A change of about 2–3 points, or 30%, is considered clinically meaningful
Key Data
Age group: Adults
Completion time: about 5 minutes
Languages in SwissDTx: English, German, French
Intended Use
The RMDQ is used in physiotherapy, rehabilitation, primary care, pain medicine and clinical trials to assess how much back pain limits daily life and to follow changes during treatment.
Because it is short and sensitive to change, it is well suited to regular measurement in blended care and digital rehabilitation programmes.
Information for Practitioners
The RMDQ measures limitations in daily activities, not pain intensity. Combine it with a pain rating if both are relevant.
In SwissDTx, each statement is answered with «describes me today» or «does not describe me». The total score is calculated automatically and shown over time in the Care Cockpit.
Authors
Martin Roland
Richard Morris
Scientific References
Roland M., & Morris R. (1983). A study of the natural history of back pain. Part I: development of a reliable and sensitive measure of disability in low-back pain. Spine, 8(2), 141–144. https://doi.org/10.1097/00007632-198303000-00004
Roland M., & Fairbank J. (2000). The Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire and the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire. Spine, 25(24), 3115–3124. https://doi.org/10.1097/00007632-200012150-00006
Licence
The original questionnaire and all translations are in the public domain (rmdq.org). No permission is required for their use or reproduction, and no charge may be made for their use. German and French versions: linguistic validation by MAPI Research Institute (2005) in collaboration with Martin Roland.