Intensive spa and exercise therapy program for returning to work for low back pain patients: a randomized controlled trial.

Abstract

We aimed to determine whether a 5-day intensive inpatient spa and exercise therapy and educational program is more effective than usual care in improving the rate of returning to work at 1 year for patients with subacute and chronic low back pain (LBP) on sick leave for 4 to 24 weeks. We conducted a 12-month randomized controlled trial. LBP patients were assigned to 5-day spa (2 hr/day), exercise (30 min/day) and education (45 min/day) or to usual care. The primary outcome was the percentage of patients returning to work at 1 year after randomization. Secondary outcomes were pain, disability and health-related quality of life at 1 year and number of sick leave days from 6 to 12 months. The projected recruitment was not achieved. Only 88/700 (12.6%) patients planned were enrolled: 45 in the spa therapy group and 43 in the usual care group. At 1 year, returning to work was 56.3% versus 41.9% (OR 1.69 [95% CI 0.60-4.73], p = 0.32) respectively. There was no significant difference for any of the secondary outcomes. However, our study lacked power.

• Authors: Christelle Nguyen, Isabelle Boutron, Christopher Rein, Gabriel Baron, Katherine Sanchez, Clémence Palazzo, Arnaud Dupeyron, Jean-Max Tessier, Emmanuel Coudeyre, Bénédicte Eschalier, Romain Forestier, Christian-François Roques-Latrille, Ygal Attal, Marie-Martine Lefèvre-Colau, François Rannou, Serge Poiraudeau
• Journal: Scientific reports (Sci Rep) Vol. 7 Issue 1 Pg. 17956 (12 20 2017) ISSN: 2045-2322 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 29263353 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Randomized Controlled Trial)

Topics

• Exercise Therapy (methods)
• Female
• Humans
• Low Back Pain (therapy)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Relaxation Therapy (methods)
• Return to Work
• Treatment Outcome