Treatment of Low Back Pain: Extended follow up of an Original Trial comparing a Multidisciplinary Group-based Rehabilitation Program with Oral Drug Treatment alone up to 36 months

Background: This study is an extended follow up of the original trial study (NCT00600197) that has been published in the clinical journal of pain. This trial aimed to explore if the proposed multidisciplinary program could improve quality of life and disability of the patients suffering from chronic low back up to 36 months. Methods and Material: In this Clinical Randomized trial seventy percent (139 of 197) of the participants who had taken part in the original study including 66 patients in intervention group and 73 patients in control group were followed up to 36 months after intervention. The intervention group continued receiving monthly motivational consultation and booster classes plus oral medication but the other group received just medication. Data on measures of Short Form 36 (SF-36) Quebec Disability Scale (QDS) and Ronald Morris Disability (RDQ) were collected at 3-6-12-18-24-30- and 36-month follow ups and analyzed through RMANOVA. Results: The 2 groups were comparable regarding all baseline characteristics (P > 0.05) except for education level that was better in intervention group (P = 0.01). Two groups were improved regarding all studied variables over time up to 36 month (P < 0.001) Moreover the intervention group in comparison with the control group had consistently better outcomes regarding all variables. There were no significant differences within each group by time in terms of all variables (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The proposed multidisciplinary program could reduce low back pain and improve quality of life and disability up to 36 months in chronic low back pain patients.