Working Well With Back Pain (Feasibility RCT of Vocational Rehabilitation)

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Back pain has a major impact on people's ability to work. Health professionals need to know how they can best use their limited resources to address the occupational needs of people with chronic low back pain. Vocational rehabilitation is the process that helps people with health problems to stay at, return to and remain at work. This study comprises the second phase of a three year study of back pain and vocational rehabilitation. The first phase gathered data from patient interviews and postal surveys of GPs and GP practice managers. These findings have been used to inform this second phase; a feasibility randomised controlled trial. The participants will be thirty employed people with back pain who have been offered an NHS rehabilitation programme, and who are concerned about their ability to work with low back pain. Those who consent will be randomised into two groups. One group will receive routine rehabilitation. The other will receive routine rehabilitation plus an individually tailored vocational intervention carried out by the researcher. Following the trial, individual interviews will be carried out with each of the participants by an independent researcher. An economic study will evaluate the possibility of measuring the cost-effectiveness of the intervention. The hypothesis is that an enhanced vocational intervention plus routine rehabilitation will be more effective in improving patients' work ability than routine rehabilitation alone.

Official Title
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Changing Perceptions of Work Ability in People With Low Back Pain: Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial and Economic Evaluation.

Conditions
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Low Back Pain

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: individually targeted vocational rehabilitation
* Other: routine back pain rehabilitation


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: low back pain offered routine rehabilitation employed concern about work ability due to low back pain referral by GP in South Nottinghamshire Exclusion Criteria: not fluent in English

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 16 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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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: 1<br>individually targeted vocational rehabilitation | Other: individually targeted vocational rehabilitation<br>* individually targeted vocational rehabilitation over 4 month period, maximum of 10 sessions, in addition to routine back pain rehabilitation. Maximum of 25 participants with low back pain<br>|
| Active Comparator: 2<br>routine back pain rehabilitation | Other: routine back pain rehabilitation<br>* routine back pain rehabilitation Maximum of 25 patients with low back pain<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| work ability |  | prospective | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| self-efficacy |  | prospective | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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vocational, rehabilitation, work, ability, low back pain