The "Walking Estimated Limitation Stated by History" (WELSH) visual tool is applicable and accurate to determine walking capacity, even in people with low literacy level.

Determination of the self-reported walking capacity by interview or standardized questionnaire is important. However, the existing questionnaires require the patient to be able to read and write in a specific language. We recently proposed the WELSH (Walking Estimated Limitation Stated by History) tool to be administrable to illiterate people. The main objective was to assess the applicability of WELSH tool in the community and in a large group. We performed a prospective study in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso during June 2020. We recruited 630 interviewers among medical students. They were trained to administer the WELSH, and to conduct a 6-minute walk test. We performed a Pearson's "r" correlation between the WELSH and maximal walking distance (MWD). Of the 1723 participants available for the analysis, 757 (43.9%: 41.6-46.3) never went to school or attended only elementary school. The percentage of questionnaires with participant filling-in errors corrected by the investigator decreased with the decrease in educational level (p<0.001). The average WELSH score was 53 ± 22 and the average MWD was 383 ±142 meters. The Spearman correlation coefficient between the WELSH score and the MWD was r = 0.567 (p<0.001). Correlations ranged from 0.291 to 0.576 in males and females, (all p values < 0.05) and in different levels of education, with the highest coefficients found in illiterate people. The WELSH is feasible on the community by a wide variety of interviewers. It correlates with the MWD estimated by the 6-minutes' walk test even for people with little or no schooling.

KINESIOPHOBIA: FREQUENCY, ASSOCIATED FACTORS AND IMPACT ON THE LIFE QUALITY OF PARTICIPANTS WITH CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: To study the frequency of kinesiophobia, the associated factors and its impact on the life quality in black Africa of participants with chronic low back pain. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: It was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, conducted over the period extending from March 2019 through September 2019. The study population included all black African participants with chronic low back pain who were seeking care at the rheumatology and physical medicine departments, during the study period. Pain intensity, duration of symptoms, medical history, endurance of trunk muscles, kinesiophobia index, and quality of life were assessed. We used the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) to measure pain intensity, the Shirado-Ito and Sorensen tests to assess trunk muscles endurance. The kinesiophobia index, as well as its impact on life quality were measured using the "Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia" (TSK), and the Dallas Auto-Questionnaire (D.R.A.D) scale for spine Pain respectively. RESULTS: Results: One hundred and twenty patients were involved. Eighty-five patients (70.83%) had kinesiophobia. The factors associated with kinesiophobia included pain intensity (p = 0.0006); duration of symptoms (p = 0.027); hypertension (p = 0.03). Loss of endurance in trunk muscles, weight and gender were not found to be factors associated with kinesiophobia. Based on the DALLAS self-questionnaire, the quality of life was altered. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: Kinesiophobia was a recurrent disease. It was associated with the presence of hypertension, the intensity of pain, the duration of the low back pain with an impairment in quality of life.

Trauma related to falls from trees treated in a specialized trauma centre in Burkina-Faso-one hundred and six cases treated in one year.

PURPOSE: Falls from trees related traumas are rarely reported in literature. They are public health problems in developing countries where their frequency is still important. The aim of the study is to describe falls from trees related trauma patterns and to present preventative measures. METHODS: An annual ongoing prospective study was held in our trauma emergency department (ED) about all the patients who sustained an injury after a recent fall from tree. A questionnaire related to the patient and to the trauma was established. The data were encoded and analysed by a statistical software. RESULTS: One hundred six patients who sustained a fall from tree trauma, out of a total of 139, were studied. Most patients were under 15 years old (76.4 %); they were injured in fruits season (33 %) after a fall from a fruit tree (mango trees, Shea trees, Néré, etc.) and were received late (86 %). Injuries were polymorphic from traumatic brain injuries (51.8 %) and spine injuries (13.2 %) to thoraco-abdominal (21.6 %) and limbs injuries (46.2 %). Three housewives were pregnant at the time of the trauma with secondary abortions. Patients were managed medically (33.9 %), surgically (19.8 %) or by casting (34.9 %) with good outcome in 59 cases. Twelve patients refused medical care and two died. CONCLUSION: Education programs must focus on picking fruits and leaves in order to make them safe and prevent injuries related to these traditional or professional activities.