Low Back Pain and Quality of Life Among the Ambulance Drivers in Malaysia's Hospitals
Condition: Low Back Pain; Quality of Life
MeSH terms: Back Pain; Low Back Pain
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The study is a community interventional study by using an integrated back pain module (IBPM).
      The purpose of this study is to find out if the module training has any benefit on Low Back
      pain among ambulance drivers. The effectiveness of the module is determined by baseline
      quality of life results compared with after the intervention program completed.
    

Detailed description: 
      An integrated back pain module (IBPM) will be implemented for ambulance drivers (Respondent)
      in peninsular Malaysia. Pre-intervention assessment and post-intervention assessment will be
      conducted in 18 government hospitals involved. There is nine Hospital in Perak that has been
      selected as an intervention group and nine Hospital in Kelantan will be the Control group.
      Two different regions are selected; the North region will be the intervention group (Perak)
      while East Coast will be the control group (Kelantan). The clinical benefits of the IBPM
      module low back pain and quality of life will be reported at the beginning and the end of the
      intervention and after a period of 6 months follow up.

      The protocol for the intervention group (Perak) included five components of the education
      module (IBPM) such as the structure and function of the spine, causes of LBP, how to avoid
      low back pain at the workplace, Exercise methods, and psychology management. The overall
      objectives are to help ambulance driver manage their LBP and prevent future LBP recurrences.
      The first step of the protocol is subjects are required to attend an introductory course for
      one day and then the intervention will last for 6 months. Research staff will explain how to
      operate and use the module. Subjects must comply with all the care and prevention guidelines
      of the research module so that it achieves the expected results. They also need to complete
      the checklist provided in the Edmodo software via their respective smartphones. Tokens in the
      form of top-ups will be entered automatically after the checklist is received by researchers.

      The exercise will be performed by participants 5 times per week for a total of 24 weeks. Each
      individual session will take around 5 minutes to perform exercises independently and sending
      their report through Edmodo. Light soft tissue exercises techniques such as active muscle
      stretching, and strengthening exercises will be used as needed to facilitate the educational
      module therapy.
    

Intervention name(s): Integrated back pain module (IBPM); Health Educational Pamphlet.
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Other
Intervention description(s): All Ambulance drivers will be screening with the Proforma to determine their low back pain symptoms. Those workers who are diagnosed with mechanical back pain during the 12 months fulfill a self-report quality of life questionnaire (SF-36). Then Integrated back pain module (IBPM) will be delivered to them after the introduction course conducted for 1 day and then the intervention will last for 6 months. Research staff will explain how to operate and use the module. Subjects must comply with all the care and prevention guidelines of the research module so that it achieves the expected results. They also need to complete the checklist provided in the Edmodo software via their respective smartphones.; In Health Educational Pamphlet (HEP) sessions, Participants will be taught the importance of movement and activity, pain management techniques, and methods for developing spinal posture awareness during activities of daily living (e.g., lifting, pushing, pulling, sitting, getting out of bed, and using a backpack).
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: LBP; QOL