Recurrent Low Back Pain

It was a year ago that an article published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine looked at the impact of “maintenance treatment” in recurrent low back pain. Here are their conclusions: “In work-related nonspecific low back pain (LBP), the use of health maintenance care provided by physical therapist or physician services was associated with a higher disability recurrence than in chiropractic services or no treatment.”

Some other quotes from the article:

Low back pain is “one of the costliest work-related injuries in the United States in terms of disability and treatment costs.” “An additional, important component of the human and economic costs is the recurrence of LBP.”

“Health maintenance care is a clinical intervention approach thought to prevent recurrent episodes of LBP. … with the aim of improving health status and preventing recurrences of a previous health condition.”

Chiropractic patients had “fewer surgeries, used fewer opioids, and had lower costs for medical care than the other provider groups.”

“After controlling for demographic factors and mulitple severity indicators, patients suffering nonospecific work-related LBP who received health services mostly or only form a chiropractor had a lower risk of recurrent disability than the risk of any other provider type.”

“Our findings seem to support the use of chiropractor services, as chiropractor services generally cost less than services from other providers.”

Chiropractic patient had “less expensive medical services and shorter initial periods of disability than cases treated by other providers.”

References: 1. Health Maintenance Care in Work-Related Low Back Pain and Its Association With Disability Recurrence. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2. Manuel Cifuentes, MD, PhD, Joanna Willetts, MS, Radoslaw, PhD, MA, MSc April 2011; Vol. 53, No 4 pp. 396-404 American Journal of Clinical Chiropractic