| Description |
Nonspecific low back pain (LBP) is defined as pain between the 12th rib and the inferior gluteal folds, with or without leg pain and present in the absence of any specific pathology. Approximately 80 percent of all people experience low back problems at some point in their lives, and many are at risk for developing long-lasting pain and disability. Although psychosocial factors have long been thought to be associated with chronic pain only, more recent research focuses on psychosocial factors in association with acute or subacute pain. Evidence suggests that psychosocial factors have an influence on the outcome of physical therapy treatment and that the extent of their influence differs considerably among LBP patients. This study enrolled patients with complaints of acute/subacute LBP. Patients were randomly assigned to an outpatient rehabilitation program into a Fear avoidance treatment (education) group (n=37) or usual PT care or control group (n=39). Variables of interest will be assessed at the baseline, after 6 weeks, and after 3 months. The study compared the outcomes of patients with acute/subacute LBP who receive usual care PT versus those receiving the fear avoidance education treatment. Repeated measure oneway ANOVA was used to compare between the groups for baseline, six weeks, and three months for the primary and secondary outcomes. We examined the effects of time and treatment group on primary outcomes (PNRS and ODI) and secondary outcomes (PCS and FABQ; physical and work sub-scale) with a repeated measure ANOVA. There was no significant mean difference between the groups for the primary and secondary outcomes p > .05. The nature of the interaction was that the participants in the education group and the participants in the usual care group did not change significantly. The within subject test of the FABQ physical subscale showed that the interaction of time and group was significant indicating there was a difference between the groups across time, F(1.71, 126.87) = 3.55 p = .038. Conclusion: education did not reveal any significant effects in pain, disability and fear for both education and usual care groups who had an episode of acute and subacute LBP. There was a significant overall effect of physical subscale FABQ throughout the time favoring the educational group. |
