Osteopathic Evaluation on Patients With Non-specific Back Pain: An Inter-examiner Reliability Study

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of this study is to determine whether two osteopathic evaluators with less than 5 years experience will be able to determine the same location and nature of the primary lesion(s) or restriction(s)in patients with chronic non-specific back pain using a global osteopathic evaluation approach.

Detailed Description
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Back pain is one of the leading causes of consultation for rehabilitation. Establishing a diagnosis in the initial patient assessment is essential to choosing a specific treatment plan for that patient, regardless of the type of therapy the patient chooses to pursue. Evidence based medicine is the current gold standard for most manual-therapy professions, and there has been a great deal of research performed in an attempt to give credibility to the one tool that all manual therapy professions share in common: palpation. Few studies have been able to demonstrate an acceptable rate of inter-examiner reliability for palpation. This study will combine a global testing regime, consensus training for evaluators, and access to history of injury with symptomatic subjects to verify the inter-examiner reliability of an osteopathic evaluation on patients with chronic, non-specific low back pain.

Official Title
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Osteopathic Evaluation on Patients With Non-specific Back Pain: An Observational Inter-examiner Reliability Study

Conditions
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Inter-examiner Reliability, Location and Nature of Restriction or Lesion, Non-specific Back Pain

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: General Osteopathic Evaluation


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Men and women ages 18-60 Must have a history of non-specific back pain (not due to any known pathology eg. disc herniation or disc degenerative disease) that is currently not irritated and has not been, in the past 8 weeks Must be available for 3 consecutive hour Exclusion Criteria: Patients with a known cause for their back pain Patients who have had a flare up of symptoms within the last 8 weeks Patients who are currently undergoing any rehabilitation or who have received manual treatment in the last 8 weeks. Patients who are taking daily medications for pain Pregnant women Major medical conditions: fractures, degenerative arthritis, inflammatory disorders, ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, paralysis stroke or recent concussion history Any other conditions that would prevent the participant from completing the evaluation

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 60 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Non-specific back pain<br> | Other: General Osteopathic Evaluation<br>* 2 general osteopathic evaluations of approximately 1 hour in duration done consecutively on the same day with a 15 minute break between evaluations<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Inter-examiner reliability | Inter-examiner reliability between two evaluators for nature and location of primary restriction(s), lesion(s) found during a global osteopathic evaluation | Day 1 | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Global osteopathic evaluation, Non-specific back pain, Inter-examiner reliability