Background: Family physicians in Canada's universal healthcare system often manage low back pain patients using interventions not recommended in clinical guidelines, such as pharmaceuticals, imaging and spinal injections, while guideline-based treatments like education and exercise remain unfunded. The Alberta Back Care pathway was developed to address this gap, offering funded, evidence-based care for low back pain patients in 5 streams (acute, sub-acute, chronic, chronic non-responsive and stable radiculopathy).
Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of implementing the pathway in two urban Primary Care Networks in Alberta, Canada.
Objective: To investigate if a combination of an online and onsite implementation strategy was superior to an online-only strategy in enhancing the use of an injury prevention exercise programme (IPEP) and in reducing the risk of shoulder, knee and ankle injuries in youth community handball players (age 11-17) over a handball season.
Methods: In this 30-week hybrid effectiveness-implementation cluster randomised type 3 study, 20 youth handball clubs were randomly assigned 1:1 to either a combined online and onsite implementation strategy (coach workshop using the health action process approach behaviour change model and health service provider (HSP) support) or an online-only strategy (control group). The primary implementation outcome was coach-reported adherence, measured as the average IPEP exercise usage by the team over 30 weeks.
Background: Some patients with low back pain (LBP) also report radiating leg pain which is a prognostic factor for poorer clinical outcomes. We aimed: 1) to compare the baseline characteristics of patients with LBP with - (LBP + leg pain) and without radiating leg pain (LBP - alone); 2) to investigate whether patients with LBP + leg pain show similar post-treatment outcomes as compared to LBP - alone, after participation in an exercise and patient education program, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Rheumatol
September 2024
Objectives: To describe the current content of low back pain (LBP) care in Danish general practice, the patients' self-management activities, and the clinicians' experienced barriers to providing best practice care.
Methods: This cross-sectional observational study included adults with LBP seeking care in Danish general practice from August 2022 to June 2023. Patient-reported information included demographics, pain intensity, medical history, treatments, and self-management strategies.
Objective: To investigate symptom trajectories in chiropractic patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS).
Methods: Patients diagnosed with LSS were recruited from chiropractic clinics and self-reported questionnaires were collected at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Patients received weekly text messages about low back pain (LBP) and leg symptoms for 1 year.
In patients with low back pain (LBP), a visually identified retrospective pain trajectory often mismatches with a trajectory derived from prospective repeated measures. To gain insight into the clinical relevance of the 2 trajectory types, we investigated which showed a higher association with clinical outcomes. Participants were 724 adults seeking care for LBP in Danish chiropractic primary care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMusculoskeletal conditions are often managed in primary care settings. To facilitate research and healthcare quality, practice-based research networks offer sustained collaborations between clinicians and researchers. A scoping review was conducted to describe characteristics of practice-based research networks used for musculoskeletal research and musculoskeletal research conducted through practice-based research networks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Individual goal setting is a fundamental element in self-management supportive interventions, serving to guide actions and enhance motivation for engagement. Despite this, little is known about the goals people with back pain have and to what extent these differ across genders, age groups and geographical location. This study aimed to elucidate this by first describing individual goals set by Danish and Canadian participants in a self-management intervention for people with back pain using the ICF framework; then, determining what proportion of these goals met criteria for being specific, measurable, acceptable, and time bound, and finally, by investigating differences between countries, sexes, and age groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Practice-based research networks are collaborations between clinicians and researchers to advance primary care research. This study aims to assess the feasibility for longitudinal data collection within a newly established chiropractic PBRN in Switzerland.
Methods: A prospective observational cohort feasibility study was performed.
Objective: To explore how causal beliefs regarding non-specific low back pain (LBP) have been quantitatively investigated.
Methods: A scoping review based on the guidelines by the JBI (former Joanna Briggs Institute) was conducted. We searched Medline, Embase, Psychinfo, and CINAHL for relevant studies and included peer-reviewed original articles that measured causal beliefs about non-specific LBP among adults and reported results separate from other belief domains.
Background: People with nonspecific low back pain (NSLBP) can also experience overlapping symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), but the impact on treatment outcomes is unknown. This study investigated differences in treatment outcomes for disability, back pain intensity, and leg pain intensity following an education and exercise therapy program for NSLBP patients with and without comorbid LSS symptoms.
Methods: This was a longitudinal analysis of 655 Danish participants in the GLA:D® Back program; an education and exercise therapy program for people with persistent NSLBP.
This commentary closes the thematic series "A new paradigm for musculoskeletal pain care: moving beyond structural impairments". The papers published in the series point to key aspects of shifting the paradigm of musculoskeletal care from clinician-led management often focused on addressing presumed structural anomalies to partnering with patients to find individual strategies that empower patients towards self-management. Several papers in the series highlighted the need for developing patient-centred models of care that respect individual patient's needs and preferences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To unpack the complexity and impact of self-management interventions targeting musculoskeletal health conditions, we need to learn more about treatment delivery in clinical settings. Fidelity evaluation can illuminate how complex treatments are delivered and help understand the elements that lead to the effect. The objective of this study was to develop a checklist for the evaluation of the clinicians' delivery of structured patient education and exercise intervention for people with persistent back pain, the GLA:D Back intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDifferent trajectories of low back pain (LBP) have been identified prospectively using repeated measures. For these trajectories to inform clinical practice, they must be available in the clinical consultation. Therefore, identified LBP trajectories have been translated into visual pain trajectories (VPTs) that allow people with LBP, at the time of consult, to reflect upon their pain experience and identify the VPT that best categorizes their pain course.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Swiss chiropractic practice-based research network (PBRN) is a nationwide project developed in collaboration with patients, clinicians, and academic stakeholders to advance musculoskeletal epidemiologic research. The aim of this study was to describe the clinician population recruited and representativeness of this PBRN to inform future collaboration. A population-based cross-sectional study was performed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous studies have found that lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) often co-occurs with knee or hip OA and can impact treatment response. However, it is unclear what participant characteristics may be helpful in identifying individuals with these co-occurring conditions. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore characteristics associated with comorbid symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) in people with knee or hip osteoarthritis (OA) enrolled in a primary care education and exercise program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Low back pain (LBP) is one of the world's most prevalent health issues. Patients with LBP experience various intensities and durations of symptoms, which can lead to distinctive course patterns commonly described as symptom trajectories.
Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the association between different amounts of physical activity and sedentary behavior and the trajectory of LBP, in people with a lifetime history of LBP.
Objective: People with knee or hip osteoarthritis (OA) can experience comorbid lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), but the impact on treatment outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between comorbid LSS symptoms and changes in pain, function, and quality of life following a patient education and exercise therapy program.
Design: This was a longitudinal analysis of 6813 participants in the Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark (GLA:D®) program; a structured patient education and exercise therapy program for knee and hip OA.
Objectives: To understand the physical, activity, pain, and psychological pathways contributing to low back pain (LBP) -related disability, and if these differ between subgroups.
Methods: Data came from the baseline observations (n = 3849) of the "GLA:D Back" intervention program for long-lasting nonspecific LBP. 15 variables comprising demographic, pain, psychological, physical, activity, and disability characteristics were measured.
Background: The dynamic nature of neck pain has so far been identified through longitudinal studies with frequent measures, a method which is time-consuming and impractical. Pictures illustrating different courses of pain may be an alternative solution, usable in both clinical work and research, but it is unknown how well they capture the clinical course. The aim of this study was to explore and describe self-reported visual trajectories in terms of details of patients' prospectively reported clinical course, their SMS-based pattern classification of neck pain, and patient's characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Back pain is a main driver of disability and the most prevalent reason why people in Demark visit a general practitioner (GP). However, little is known about back pain management in primary care. For new strategies to be sustainable and to accommodate the recommendations for evidence-based practice, patients' perspectives are paramount to complement clinical expertise and research evidence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Health domains like pain, disability, and health-related quality of life are commonly used outcomes for musculoskeletal disorders. Most prognostic studies include only one outcome, and it is unknown if prognostic factors and models may be generic across different outcomes. The objectives of this study were to examine the correlation among commonly used outcomes for neck pain (pain intensity, disability, and health-related quality of life) and to explore how the predictive performance of a prognostic model differs across commonly used outcomes.
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