The aim of this study was to describe, by means of weekly measures, the course of low back pain (LBP) in chiropractic patients. The primary outcome was number of days with bothersome pain, which was analyzed for association with known predictor variables (gender, leg pain, occupation and self rated health). Patients were followed for six months. A novel approach is used: short message services, SMS, sent to the respondents' mobile phones. Using specifically designed software, respondents received an SMS every week, which they responded to also using SMS. The question was: “How many days this previous week has your low back pain been bothersome (i.e. affected your daily activities or routines)? Please answer by a number from 0 to 7.” Baseline variables were collected during the chiropractic consultation. Patients were further assessed at the 4th visit. A follow-up questionnaire was sent to the respondents at the end of the six months. The associations of the primary outcome with baseline variables were investigated using mixed linear models.Aim
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