Is triage an effective way of initiating early intervention for patients with a chronic musuloskeletal condition on a hospital waiting list?

Does physiotherapy triage improve scores on quality of life outcome tools compared with wait-list controls or sham triage for patients with a chronic musculoskeletal condition on a hospital waiting list?

Status

Not yet recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12608000316303

Enrollment

Registered

2008-07-01

Start date

2008-09-01

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2020-01-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

This study aims to determine if early intervention for chronic pain problems, provided in the form of physiotherapy triage, improves patient outcomes while they wait for their physiotherapy treatment. Triage involves a brief assessment, with advice about pain management, basic exercises and resource information.

Interventions

15-20 minute physiotherapy screening/triage appointment within two days of admission to trial. Triage intervention is provision of basic advice for self management, which could be basic pain management advice, basic exercises, encouragement to increase activity levels and/or resource information.

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Intervention model

Parallel

Primary purpose

Treatment

Masking

Blinded (masking used)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

12 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

Patients referred to the Calvary Physiotherapy Outpatient Department with a stable chronic pain condition, defined as a pain and/or reduced mobility in one or two related joints or regions for more than 2 months with no recent, severe deterioration.

Exclusion criteria

Pain in more than one unrelated joint/region. Poor grasp of English. Physiotherapy for same condition within 6 months. Under 12 years old. Recent severe deterioration in the condition and/or presence of "red flags".

Outcome results