THE VARIATIONS OF PAIN; DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE OF LOW BACK PAIN IN 244 CHIROPRACTIC PATIENTS FOLLOWED FOR SIX MONTHS

Aim

The aim of this study was to describe, by means of weekly measures, the course of low back pain (LBP) in chiropractic patients. The primary outcome was number of days with bothersome pain, which was analyzed for association with known predictor variables (gender, leg pain, occupation and self rated health). Patients were followed for six months.

Method

A novel approach is used: short message services, SMS, sent to the respondents' mobile phones. Using specifically designed software, respondents received an SMS every week, which they responded to also using SMS. The question was: “How many days this previous week has your low back pain been bothersome (i.e. affected your daily activities or routines)? Please answer by a number from 0 to 7.”

Baseline variables were collected during the chiropractic consultation. Patients were further assessed at the 4^th visit. A follow-up questionnaire was sent to the respondents at the end of the six months. The associations of the primary outcome with baseline variables were investigated using mixed linear models.

Preliminary results

Compliance among 244 patients was high; 82.5 %. In the final model, duration (more or less than 30 days the previous year), EQ5D start score (self rated health) and self-rated improvement at the 4^th visit were significantly associated with the number of days with bothersome pain during the following 26 weeks.

Conclusion

Using this method of data collection, we have evaluated the course of the LBP condition in detail. The method seems promising because of good compliance and minimal recall bias.