Preventing Neck & Back Pain in Teleworking Office Workers: a Randomized Controlled Trial (Prevent@HOME)

University Ghent

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Back Pain; Neck Pain; Low Back Pain

Treatments: Other: Exercise program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04783454

BC-08635

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of a general training program and educational session to prevent neck and/or low back pain in desktop workers

Full description

After being informed about the study and potential risks, all subjects that met the preset inclusion criteria and gave written informed consent to participate will be randomized into an intervention or control group in a 1:1 ratio. Next, subjects of both groups will undergo baseline testing (online survey). The subjects of the intervention group receive a single educational video (online) and are motivated to follow 2 training sessions of 60 minutes each, during 12 consecutive weeks. Instructions for the specific exercises are provided via an online platform. The subjects of the control group are instructed to maintain their normal working activities and activities of daily life and receive no further intervention. Subjects of both groups are prompted to fill out a weekly online logbook to gather information on their physical activity and neck and/or back complaints. All subjects undergo post-intervention testing at 12 weeks (short term effects), 6 months, and 12 months (long term effects).

Enrollment: 600 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 69 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• age between 18-69 years
• perform regular desktop work (at least 20 hours/week)
• perform desktop work for at least 1 year (employee or student)

Exclusion Criteria:

• documented structural neck- and/or back pathology (confirmed by medical imaging)
• known shoulder or vestibular pathology
• whiplash-associated disorders
• history of surgery in the neck, shoulder, hip, and/or back area
• (history of) chronic pain condition
• serious headache
• serious cardiovascular/metabolic/systemic/neurological conditions
• chronic fatigue syndrome
• fibromyalgia
• psychiatric conditions or history of serious depression
• serious catastrophizing thoughts
• pregnancy or delivery in the past year

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

---

600 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

* single (online) educational video on how the prevention program is designed and general advice on (how to adopt) a healthy lifestyle * 12-week training program: 2 sessions of 60 minutes per week, with the focus of the first session on cardiovascular exercises, and the focus of the second session on mobility and strengthening exercises

Treatment:

Other: Exercise program

control

No Intervention group

Description:

no intervention (wait and see approach)