Exercise testing in a paediatric chronic pain cohort – A cross-sectional observation study

Background: The utility of exercise testing in an interdisciplinary paediatric chronic pain assessment is unknown. The aims of this study were to explore exercise testing results in a paediatric chronic pain cohort and associations with baseline patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), including various measures of pain experience and functioning. Methods: ) were determined between baseline exercise testing results and PROMs, and between different exercise tests. Results: 's = .17-.52). The 6MWT, plank and pushups each had at least five weak to moderate associations with PROMs and the prone extension test had one weak association. Conclusions: Exercise testing results in a paediatric chronic pain cohort are presented, including with age stratification. The results of the current study suggest that exercise testing provides unique information to supplement other forms of assessment. There is a need for standardised exercise protocols with normative datasets, so that clinical and research findings are more comparable across settings.