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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2017 Dec 20;7(1):17956.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18311-z.

Intensive spa and exercise therapy program for returning to work for low back pain patients: a randomized controlled trial

Christelle Nguyen  1   2   3 , Isabelle Boutron  4   5   6 , Christopher Rein  4 , Gabriel Baron  6 , Katherine Sanchez  4 , Clémence Palazzo  7   8   9 , Arnaud Dupeyron  10 , Jean-Max Tessier  11 , Emmanuel Coudeyre  12 , Bénédicte Eschalier  12 , Romain Forestier  13 , Christian-François Roques-Latrille  14 , Ygal Attal  15 , Marie-Martine Lefèvre-Colau  4   7   8 , François Rannou  4   7   16 , Serge Poiraudeau  4   7   8   9
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Intensive spa and exercise therapy program for returning to work for low back pain patients: a randomized controlled trial

Christelle Nguyen et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

We aimed to determine whether a 5-day intensive inpatient spa and exercise therapy and educational program is more effective than usual care in improving the rate of returning to work at 1 year for patients with subacute and chronic low back pain (LBP) on sick leave for 4 to 24 weeks. We conducted a 12-month randomized controlled trial. LBP patients were assigned to 5-day spa (2 hr/day), exercise (30 min/day) and education (45 min/day) or to usual care. The primary outcome was the percentage of patients returning to work at 1 year after randomization. Secondary outcomes were pain, disability and health-related quality of life at 1 year and number of sick leave days from 6 to 12 months. The projected recruitment was not achieved. Only 88/700 (12.6%) patients planned were enrolled: 45 in the spa therapy group and 43 in the usual care group. At 1 year, returning to work was 56.3% versus 41.9% (OR 1.69 [95% CI 0.60-4.73], p = 0.32) respectively. There was no significant difference for any of the secondary outcomes. However, our study lacked power.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Enrollment, randomization, and follow-up.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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