The effect of amultimodal group programme in hospital
workers with persistent low back pain: a prospective
observational study
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Abstract
Background: Low Back Pain (LBP) is a very common disorder in hospital workers. Several studies examined the
efficacy of multimodal interventions for health care providers suffering from LBP; nevertheless their results did not
appear to be consistent. Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the effect of a multimodal group programme
(MGP) on pain and disability in a sample of hospital workers with persistent LBP. Methods: A prospective
cohort study was conducted to compare baseline measurements with changes over an eight-month period. The
study focused on 109 workers suffering from persistent LBP with or without radiating pain: 62 nurses and 47 blue
collars not involved in health care. The MGP consisted of six group sessions including supervised exercises, an athome
programme and ergonomic advice. The primary outcome measurement was the level of disability recorded
with the Roland & Morris Disability Questionnaire, while the secondary outcome measurement was the evaluation
of lumbar physical discomfort with the Visual Analogue Scale. Data were analyzed using the Multiple Imputation
method for dropouts. Results: At the short-term follow-up participants showed a statistically significant reduction
(from baseline) of all outcome measurements, particularly for the nurses group. Moreover, about a third of
the subjects showed clinically significant improvement. No significant reduction in pain and disability (from baseline)
was observed at the mid-term follow-up in either group. Conclusions: An MGP dedicated to hospital workers
seems to be partially useful only for short-term follow-up, particularly for health care providers