Abstract
Background
Combined physical and psychological (CPP) programmes are widely recommended for Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) patients, but not often implemented. Patients with longstanding CLBP participating in a two-week CPP programme improve in functional status and quality of life and this is maintained at two-year follow up. One-year follow-up data is available of 955 participants.
Purpose:
Evaluation of one-year follow-up outcomes of a large cohort (n=848) compared to previously published results of the first 107 patients.
Methods and Results
Pre-treatment age (43.4 years [SD8.4]), CLBP duration (12.3 years [SD10.9]), being employed (70%), and previous surgery (32%) were compared. Except for age (48.0 [SD 11.6], t=−4.0, p<0.001), no significant differences in pre-treatment characteristics were found. Primary outcome was functional status (Oswestry Disability Index [ODI;0-100]). Secondary outcomes: self-efficacy and quality of life. A Repeated Measures analysis of variance was used to identify changes over time (R2) and to compare differences between cohorts. The mean ODI score showed a similar pattern: improvement at post-treatment and maintenance of results over time (ODI df[1,848], F = 917.0, p<0.001; R2 = 0.52). Secondary outcomes showed the same pattern. Compared to previously reported results, significantly more improvement over time is shown. Half of the CLBP patients (50.1%) reached a functional status equivalent to an acceptable value (ODI ≤ 20).
Conclusion
These results demonstrate the efficacy of this CPP programme. Patients improve during the programme, have further improved at one-year follow up, and half of the patients improve such that their functional status is comparable to that of the healthy population.
