[Back school in low back pain: a single blind randomized trial]

ABSTRACT

Back school was developed as a preventive measure for reducing low back pain in those who suffer from the disease. Despite diversities in approaches. all back school programmers involve classes in which patients receive theoretical and practical information to know their back and to cope with their limitations. Some studies showed benefits of back school including reduction in pain severity and functional disability in the short and medium terms. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the short term effect of the multidimensional and interdisciplinary modern back school program in women with chronic low back pain in Tehran, Iran. This was a randomized controlled clinical trial carried out in Teheran, Iran. All 102 eligible women with chronic low back pain were randmly allocated to either back school program [n = 50] or control group [n = 52]. The back school subjects received 5 group sessions of back school education over 12 hours and followed up weekly until 3 months but control group was not offered any education. The two groups underwent physician visits and medication. Outcome variables were the pain severity as well as measures of physical, social and emotional functioning using the SF- 36 questionnaires. The findings indicated a significant improvements in pain, physical, emotional and social functioning scores in the back school group compared to control group. Although pain reduction was reported in both groups after 3 months but the difference was significantly greater for the back school group. Also regression analysis showed that back school program was the best predictor for improving low back pain. The back school program is an effective measure in reducing pain severity in those who suffer from low back pain