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Fernando Dias Correia, fcorreia@swordhealth.com

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported as follows: C.D. and F.D.C. were responsible for the study concept and design; M.M. acquired the data; R.M. performed the statistical analysis of the data; F. Costa, A.C.A., D.J., and M.M. interpreted the data; D.J., F. Costa, and A.C.A. were responsible for drafting the work; J.K.S., V.Y., and S.P.C. for the critical revision of the paper; and V.B. was responsible for funding. All authors approved the final submitted version and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

The authors acknowledge the team of physiotherapists responsible for the management of participants: Stacie Segebart, Abby Shottler, Ricky Schrantz, Pamela Gjerde, and Erika Ortega. We also would like to acknowledge the clinical research coordination team: Isabelle M. Vernon, Lauren Glenney, Diya Sandhu, Mimi Nguyen, and David Pasion. No funding was obtained for this work.

The authors declare no competing interests but the following competing financial interests: F. Costa, D.J., A.C.A., M.M., F.D.C., and V.Y. are employees of Sword Health, the sponsor of this study. F.D.C., V.Y., and V.B. also hold equity in Sword Health. R.M. is an independent scientific consultant responsible for statistical analysis. J.K.S. and S.P.C. are independent scientific and clinical consultants who received an adviser honorarium from Sword Health.

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Research Funding:

No funding was obtained for this work.

Keywords:

  • Science & Technology
  • Life Sciences & Biomedicine
  • Health Care Sciences & Services
  • Medical Informatics
  • SURGERY

Randomized-controlled trial assessing a digital care program versus conventional physiotherapy for chronic low back pain

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Journal Title:

NPJ DIGITAL MEDICINE

Volume:

Volume 6, Number 1

Publisher:

, Pages 121-121

Type of Work:

Article | Final Publisher PDF

Abstract:

Low back pain (LBP) is the world’s leading cause of years lived with disability. Digital exercise-based interventions have shown great potential in the management of musculoskeletal conditions, promoting access and easing the economic burden. However, evidence of their effectiveness for chronic LBP (CLBP) management compared to in-person physiotherapy has yet to be unequivocally established. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to compare the clinical outcomes of patients with CLBP following a digital intervention versus evidence-based in-person physiotherapy. Our results demonstrate that patient satisfaction and adherence were high and similar between groups, although a significantly lower dropout rate is observed in the digital group (11/70, 15.7% versus 24/70, 34.3% in the conventional group; P = 0.019). Both groups experience significant improvements in disability (primary outcome), with no differences between groups in change from baseline (median difference: −0.55, 95% CI: −2.42 to 5.81, P = 0.412) or program-end scores (−1.05, 95% CI: −4.14 to 6.37; P = 0.671). Likewise, no significant differences between groups are found for secondary outcomes (namely pain, anxiety, depression, and overall productivity impairment). This RCT demonstrates that a remote digital intervention for CLBP can promote the same levels of recovery as evidence-based in-person physiotherapy, being a potential avenue to ease the burden of CLBP.

Copyright information:

© The Author(s) 2023

This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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