Full Intervention Gets Workers Back on the Job

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Full Intervention Gets Workers Back on the Job

A model for the treatment of subacute work-related back pain was developed and evaluated in a population-based clinical trial.

Patients who had been absent from work for more than four weeks for back pain were randomized, based on their workplace, into one of four treatment groups: usual care, clinical intervention, occupational intervention, or full intervention (a combination of clinical/occupational intervention). The duration of absence from regular work and from any work was evaluated using survival analysis.

The full intervention group returned to regular work 2.41 times faster than the usual care intervention group. The specific effect of the occupational intervention accounted for the most important part of this result, with a rate ratio of return to regular work of 1.91. Pain and disability scales demonstrated either a statistically significant reduction or a trend toward reduction in the three intervention groups, compared with the trend in the usual care intervention group. These findings imply that close association of occupational intervention with clinical care is of primary importance in impeding progression toward chronicity of low-back pain.

Loisel P, Abenhaim L, et al. A population-based, randomized clinical trial on back-pain management. Spine, Dec. 1997;22(24), pp2911-18.