Refer to Exercise 13.10.3. Nozawa et al. (A-10) also calculated the Japanese Orthopaedic Association score for measuring back pain (JOA). The results for the 20 subjects along with the duration of follow-up are shown in the following table. The higher the number, the lesser the degree of pain.

Duration of Follow-Up

(Months) JOA Duration of Follow-Up

(Months) JOA 103 21 38 13 68 14 36 24 62 26 34 21 60 24 30 22 60 13 19 25 54 24 19 23 49 22 19 20 44 23 19 21 42 18 17 25 41 24 16 21 Source: Satoshi Nozawa, Katsuji Shimizu, Kei Miyamoto, and Mizuo Tanaka,

“Repair of Pars Interarticularis Defect by Segmental Wire Fixation in Young Athletes with Spondylolysis,” American Journal of Sports Medicine, 31 (2003), pp. 359–364.

Can we conclude from these data that in general there is a relationship between length of follow-up and JOA score at the time of the operation? Let a ¼ :05.