None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Low back pain is a common problem, affecting over 4 million Australians every year. Advice, defined as any advice, education or information given by a healthcare professional to improve a patient’s understanding of pain or appropriate management, is recommended by guidelines internationally as a first line treatment for acute low back pain (pain less than or equal to 6 weeks). The goal of advice for acute low back pain is to reduce worries and concerns and to promote positive future healthcare behaviours. It is currently unknown which type of advice is best at reassuring patients with acute low back pain. The current approach recommended by guidelines involves providing information on the nature of low back pain and its generally favourable prognosis and encouragement to continue with normal activities (e.g. activities of daily living, leisure, and work) and avoid bed rest. Other approaches include pain science education-based advice and ergonomic-based advice. Pain science education-based advice aims to reframe unhelpful beliefs about pain by presenting information about the biologic basis and protective nature of acute low back pain. Ergonomic-based advice describes how postures and lifting techniques can contribute to a person’s acute low back pain and provides advice about how to reduce or prevent pain by maintaining good posture (e.g. when sitting or lifting objects).
Interventions
Participants will watch a pre-recorded video in which a physiotherapist member of the study team will deliver the information. Participants will have access to the video once from their computer and/or smartphone and/or tablet. We will monitor the time participants spent on the video as a measure of adherence to the intervention.
Participants randomised to guideline-based will watch the video on guideline-based advice only. Participants randomised to Guideline-based advice + pain science educat
Participants will watch a pre-recorded video in which a physiotherapist member of the study team will deliver the information. Participants will have access to the video once from their computer and/or smartphone and/or tablet. We will monitor the time participants spent on the video as a measure of adherence to the intervention. Participants randomised to guideline-based will watch the video on guideline-based advice only. Participants randomised to Guideline-based advice + pain science education-based advice will watch a video where both guideline-based and pain science education advice are provided together. 1) Guideline-based advice The messages in the guideline-based advice group will be based on resources available for consumers developed by the Australian Commission of Quality and Safety in Health Care (ACQSHC) for their low back pain clinical care standard. The developed resources for consumers and key messages reflect those form clinical practice guidelines. The pre-recorded video in this group has a duration of 1 min 38s. 2) Guideline-based advice + pain science education-based advice In addition to the guideline-based advice intervention described above, this group will receive pain science education-based advice. In addition to guideline-based advice, this group will receive messages that address key learning statements recognised by consumers as important concepts related to pain science education: (i) pain is a protective feeling, (ii) pain and tissue damage are poorly related, (iii) when it comes to pain, everything matters, (iv) when pain persists it becomes overprotective, (v) I can retrain my pain system to be less protective, (vi) learning how pain works is an effective treatment, (vii) active strategies are better than passive strategies, and (viii) all pain is real no matter what is causing it. The video in this group has a duration of 3min 48s.
Sponsors
University of Sydney
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Self-reported current acute low back pain (duration of symptoms of up to 6 weeks) * Pain intensity of at least 1 (out of 10)
Exclusion criteria
* Having been diagnosed by a doctor with cancer, fracture in the lumbar spine, infection in the lumbar spine, cauda equina syndrome * Having undergone lumbar surgery
Outcome results
None listed