Evaluation of the short-term effects of recovery tools in the rehabilitation of chronic back pain: a feasibility study

Abstract

Background: Recovery represents an individualised, psychological construct serving as a buffer for health complaints and back pain. Recovery might also help in reducing chronic back pain (CBP) but has not been examined within CBP rehabilitation.

Aim: Testing the acute effects of recovery tools to reduce CBP and stress and to improve recovery.

Methods: A longitudinal, quasi-randomised pilot study with 55 individuals on sick leave caused by CBP was conducted. The acute effects of a multimodal out-patient rehabilitation programme were evaluated, while recovery tools were conveyed within the intervention group. The control group received regular treatment. Validated psychometric questionnaires to measure CBP, stress and recovery were used.

Results: Repeated measures ANOVA indicated significant reductions for Pain Intensity (p < .001, η_p² = 0.39), Disability (p < .001, η_p² = 0.55), Overall Stress (p = .001, η_p² = 0.19), and a significant improvement for Overall Recovery (p = .010, η_p² = 0.12) in both groups. A more pronounced increase for recovery was registered in the intervention group considering the descriptive values.

Conclusions: Both groups displayed significant short-term improvements for CBP, stress and recovery, while the intervention group did not show statistically superior effects. Long-term intervention effects should be monitored within the programme to assess the sustainable efficacy and feasibility of the recovery tools.

Keywords:

• Stress
• spine
• pain
• physiotherapy
• intervention
• MiSpEx

Acknowledgements

The study was approved by the Medical Ethic Committee of the Ruhr University Bochum. All participants completed an informed consent document in accordance with the University Institutional Review Board and the Declaration of Helsinki.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Federal Institute of Sport Science under Grant number [ZMVI1-08012A/11-18]. This work was realized within the MiSpEx-Network (The National Research Network for Medicine in Stress-related psychological factors for back pain among athletes 357 Spine Exercise).