Acute Low Back Pain: Causes, Mechanisms, Treatment and Followup (ALBP)

Göteborg University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physical Activity; Acute Low Back Pain

Treatments: Behavioral: Physical activity

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02517762

XC90-ALBP

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to investigate acute low back pain, its origin, mechanisms, the cause of pain, evaluation of treatments and development. Employees from a large local manufacturing company are sent for a complete orthopedic and pain evaluation immediately after onset of acute low back pain. Thereafter, the included patients are allocated either to the advice to stay as active as possible in spite of the pain or to adjust their activity to the pain. Pain intensity and physical activity are followed prospectively over seven days using a diary and a pedometer.

Full description

The purpose of this study is to investigate acute low back pain, its origin, mechanisms, the cause of pain, evaluation of treatments and development. Employees from a large local manufacturing company are sent for a complete orthopedic and pain evaluation immediately after onset of acute low back pain. The patients go through x-ray examinations, physical examinations, they complete a battery of questionnaires covering history of acute low back pain, lifestyle characteristics, work place factors, psychosocial factors, and indicate pain intensity and pain locations. Thereafter the patients are randomly allocated to one of two treatment advices: stay active as much as possible in spite of pain or adjust the activity to the pain. During seven days after the medical examination the patients wear a pedometer attached to the waist and annotate the number of steps and pain intensity, pain location and pain-related disability in a diary. A numeric graphic scale is used for pain intensity. Work absenteeism and sick leave due to the current acute back pain is collected from the company records. Immediate inclusion after pain onset is facilitated with continuous communication with the manufactory company. Physical activity and pain development over the seven days is investigated statistically using linear mixed models for repeated measures.

Enrollment: 99 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Severe acute low back pain, duration within 24h after onset, pain exceeds 50mm on the visual analog scale (VAS)

Exclusion criteria

• Sick-leave because of low back pain or in spine in the last month

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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99 participants in 2 patient groups

Stay active

Experimental group

Description:

Receive the advice by the physician to stay as active as possible in spite of the pain experienced

Treatment:

Behavioral: Physical activity

Adjust activity

Experimental group

Description:

Receive the advice by the physician to adjust the activity according to the pain, i.e. to avoid activities, movements or positions that cause or worsen the pain

Treatment:

Behavioral: Physical activity