This calculator is for general information and education. It is not medical advice and does not replace the judgment of a doctor, nurse or pharmacist who knows the full clinical picture.
What the Oswestry Disability Index measures
Low back pain is one of the main causes of disability worldwide, but pain intensity alone says little about how much it disrupts someone’s life. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) asks about ten areas: pain intensity, personal care, lifting, walking, sitting, standing, sleeping, sex life, social life and travelling. Each section has six statements, scored from 0 (no problem) to 5 (the worst). Jeremy Fairbank and colleagues developed it at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry, England, and it is one of the most widely used outcome measures for back pain.
The calculation
- Raw score: the sum of the answered sections, from 0 to 50
- ODI: raw score ÷ (5 × number of answered sections) × 100, in %
If one section is not answered, typically sex life, the maximum becomes 45 instead of 50, so the score is not unfairly lowered.
Example
A person rates pain 2, personal care 1, lifting 2, walking 1, sitting 2, standing 2, sleeping 1, sex life 1, social life 1 and travelling 2:
- Raw score: 15 out of 50
- ODI: 15 ÷ 50 × 100 = 30%, moderate disability
Interpretation bands
- 0 to 20%: minimal disability. Most daily activities are possible; advice on lifting, posture and exercise usually suffices.
- 21 to 40%: moderate disability. Sitting, lifting and standing are painful; travel and social life are harder.
- 41 to 60%: severe disability. Pain is the main problem in the person’s life and needs detailed assessment.
- 61 to 80%: crippling back pain affecting all areas of life.
- 81 to 100%: bed-bound, or symptoms possibly exaggerated.
Using it over time
The ODI is most useful repeated over weeks or months, to see whether treatment helps. A drop of about 10 percentage points, or a 30% relative improvement, is commonly used as the smallest meaningful change. Staying active, graded exercise and physical therapy help most people with non-specific back pain.
Seek medical care promptly for back pain with fever, unexplained weight loss, a history of cancer, numbness around the genitals or buttocks, new bladder or bowel problems, or progressive leg weakness.