Trial reportBMC health services research2019
Feasibility and long-term efficacy of a proactive health program in the treatment of chronic back pain: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC health services research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Health Coaching for Low Back Pain and Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2023Pooled it
- Evaluating relapse prophylaxis in addition to interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy for back pain: a randomised controlled trial.Journal of rehabilitation medicine · 2025Trial
- Use of pre-enrollment randomization and delayed consent to maximize participation in a clinical trial of opt-in versus opt-out tobacco treatment.Substance abuse · 2022Trial
- Cost-effectiveness analysis of a chronic back pain multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation (MBR) compared to standard care for privately insured in Germany.BMC health services research · 2021Trial
- Barriers and facilitators of engagement with app-based pain self-management strategies among chronic pain patients (CPPs).Journal of health psychology · 2026Article
- [Second opinion on spine surgery : Indication rarely confirmed and conservative treatment options are worthwhile].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2023Article
- A cross-sectional study to validate an administrative back pain severity classification tool based on the graded chronic pain scale.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Association between chronic low back pain and regular exercise, sedentary behaviour and mental health before and during COVID-19 pandemic: insights from a large-scale cross-sectional study in Germany.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2022Article
- A Scoping Review of Chronic Low Back Pain Classification Schemes Based on Patient-Reported Outcomes.Pain physician · 2022Article
- Zelen design clinical trials: why, when, and how.Trials · 2021Review
- [How long does a long-term therapy last?]Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo facilitate access to evidence-based care for back pain, a German private medical insurance offered a health program proactively to their members. Feasibility and long-term efficacy of this approach were evaluated.
methodsUsing Zelen's design, adult members of the health insurance with chronic back pain according to billing data were randomized to the intervention (IG) or the control group (CG). Participants allocated to the IG were invited to participate in the comprehensive health program comprising medical exercise therapy and life style coaching, and those allocated to the CG to a longitudinal back pain survey. Primary outcomes were back pain severity (Korff's Chronic Pain Grade Questionnaire) as well as health-related quality of life (SF-12) assessed by identical online questionnaires at baseline and 2-year follow-up in both study arms. In addition to analyses of covariance, a subgroup analysis explored the heterogeneity of treatment effects among different risks of back pain chronification (STarT Back Tool).
resultsOut of 3462 persons selected, randomized and thereafter contacted, 552 agreed to participate. At the 24-month follow-up, data on 189 of 258 (73.3%) of the IG were available, in the CG on 255 of 294 (86.7%). Significant, small beneficial effects were seen in primary outcomes: Compared to the CG, the IG reported less disability (1.6 vs 2.0; p = 0.025; d = 0.24) and scored better at the SF-12 physical health scale (43.3 vs 41.0; p < 0.007; d = 0.26). No effect was seen in back pain intensity and in the SF-12 mental health scale. Persons with medium or high risk of back pain chronification at baseline responded better to the health program in all primary outcomes than the subgroup with low risk at baseline.
conclusionsAfter 2 years, the proactive health program resulted in small positive long-term improvements. Using risk screening prior to inclusion in the health program might increase the percentage of participants deriving benefits from it.
trial registrationThe trial was registered at the German Clinical Trials Register under DRKS00015463 retrospectively (dated 4 Sept 2018).
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.