Chiropractic and Exercise for Seniors With Low Back Pain

Summary

The purpose of this randomized clincal trial is to assess the relative effectiveness of three conservative treatment approaches for seniors with chronic low back pain: 1) chiropractic manual treatment plus home exercise, 2) supervised exercise plus home exercise and 3) home exercise alone.

Conditions

• Low Back Pain

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Chiropractic Manual treatment + home exercise (procedure+behavior)

The number of treatments will be determined by the individual chiropractor. Chiropractic manual treatment will be limited to gentle spinal manipulation, mobilization and flexion-distraction therapy with light soft tissue massage as indicated to facilitate the manual therapy. Patients will attend 4, 45-minute small-group sessions at weeks 1, 2, 4 and 8. At the first two sessions they will be given information about low back pain and shown exercises to perform at home. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of staying active.

PROCEDURE

Supervised rehabilitative exercise+home exercise

The rehabilitative exercise program will consist of 20, 1-hour sessions. It is a modification of exercise protocols used in previous studies by the investigators and incorporates recommendations of leading rehabilitative exercise specialists. Patients will attend 4, 45-minute small-group sessions at weeks 1, 2, 4 and 8. At the first two sessions they will be given information about low back pain and shown exercises to perform at home. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of staying active.

BEHAVIORAL

Home exercise

Patients will attend 4, 45-minute small-group sessions at weeks 1, 2, 4 and 8. At the first two sessions they will be given information about low back pain and shown exercises to perform at home. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of staying active.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

  collaborator FED

• Berman Center for Outcomes and Clinical Research

  collaborator OTHER

• Northwestern Health Sciences University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Gert Bronfort, PhD · Northwestern Health Sciences University

• Roni Evans, MS · Northwestern Health Sciences University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2003-10-31

Completion

2008-03-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations