Integrated care for chronic back pain 'accelerates return to work'

Published on 17 Mar 2010

An integrated care programme that targets patients with chronic back pain as well as their workplace could help patients to return to work more quickly, new research suggests.

The majority of people with low back pain are able to return to work relatively quickly, but up to one-quarter of patients take long-term sick leave.

Scientists at VU University Medical Centre in The Netherlands and the University of Toronto in Canada set out to investigate the impact of an integrated care programme that is designed to help patients back to work.

They recruited 134 patients with chronic low back pain, aged 18 to 65, all of whom had been on sick leave for almost six months.

Half of the participants received usual care, while the other half took part in an integrated care programme that involved a graded exercise programme to teach patients how to move safely.

In addition, the programme consisted of adjustments to patients' workplaces in order to facilitate their return to work.

Publishing their findings in the British Medical Journal, the researchers revealed that patients who received integrated care typically returned to work after 88 days, compared with 208 days for those receiving usual care.

Although there were no differences in pain improvement between the two groups, patients in the integrated care group tended to benefit from a greater degree of functional improvement.

The study authors concluded: "Chronic low back pain is not just a clinical problem but also a psychosocial and work-related problem.

"This promising systems approach, directed to both the patient and the work environment, could have a great impact on the individual burden of low back pain."

Arthritis Research UK is currently funding research that aims to develop more effective ways in which the NHS can work with employees with back pain - and their employers - to ensure that their condition doesn't drive them away from the workplace.

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