Assessment of Chiropractic Treatment for Low Back Pain and Smoking Cessation in Military Active Duty Personnel.

Assessment of Chiropractic Treatment for Low Back Pain and Smoking Cessation in Military Active Duty Personnel.

Assessment of Chiropractic Treatment for Low Back Pain and Smoking Cessation in Military Active Duty Personnel

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of chiropractic manipulative therapy for pain management and improved function in active duty service members with low back pain that do not require surgery. The study will also measure the impact of a tobacco cessation program delivered to participants allocated to the chiropractic arm.

Low back pain (LBP) is the most common cause of disability worldwide, but it is even more prevalent in active duty military personnel; more than 50% of all diagnoses resulting in disability discharges from the military across all branches are due to musculoskeletal conditions. LBP has been characterized as "The Silent Military Threat" because of its negative impact on mission readiness and the degree to which it compromises a fit fighting force. For these reasons, military personnel with LBP need a practical and effective treatment that relieves their pain and allows them to return to duty quickly, but also one that preserves function and military readiness, addresses the underlying causes of the episode and protects against re-injury. Currently a clear "gold standard" medical treatment for low back pain does not exist and studies show that evidence-based guidelines are rarely used in general practice. Thus, there is a need to consider innovative treatment options for chronic diseases such as LBP. Therefore the primary purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of chiropractic manipulative therapy (CMT) for pain management and improved function in active duty service members with orthopedic injuries or disorders of the low back that do not require surgery. This multi-site Phase II Clinical Comparative Effectiveness Trial is designed to rigorously compare the outcomes of CMT and conventional medical care (CMC) to CMC alone. Chiropractic treatment will include CMT plus ancillary physiotherapeutic interventions. CMC will be delivered following current standards of medical practice at each site. At each of the four participating sites, active military personnel, ages 18-50, who present with acute, sub-acute or chronic low back pain that does not require surgery will be randomized to one of the two treatment groups. Outcome measures include the Numerical Rating Scale for pain, the Roland-Morris Low Back Pain and Disability questionnaire, the Back Pain Functional Scale for assessing function, and the Global Improvement questionnaire for patient perception regarding improvement in function. Patient Expectation and Patient Satisfaction questionnaires will be used to examine volunteer expectations toward care and perceptions of that care. Pharmaceutical use and duty status data will also be collected. The PROMIS-29 will be utilized to compare the general health component and quality of life of the sample at baseline. In addition, doctors of chiropractic are well positioned to provide information to support tobacco cessation. Thus this clinical trial will include a nested study designed to measure the impact of a tobacco cessation program delivered by a doctor of chiropractic. The results from this randomized clinical trial, with a nested tobacco cessation intervention, will provide critical information regarding the health and mission-support benefits of chiropractic health care delivery for active duty service members in the military

Patients will receive chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy plus conventional medical care. Medical may include the following: education about self-management, including maintaining activity levels as tolerated and local ice/heat application; pharmacologic management with the use of analgesics and anti-inflammatory agents; and additional therapies that may be applied for volunteers not responding to the initial interventions, including physical therapy and referral to a pain clinic.

Conventional medical care may include the following: a focused history and physical examination; limited diagnostic imaging restricted to select volunteers (i.e., for example, those with radiculopathy); education about self-management, including maintaining activity levels as tolerated and local ice/heat application; pharmacologic management with the use of analgesics and anti-inflammatory agents; and additional therapies that may be applied for volunteers not responding to the initial interventions, including physical therapy and referral to a pain clinic.

Volunteers will be asked to rate their average level of low back pain (LBP) during the prior week on an ordinal 11-box scale (0=no LBP; 10=worst LBP possible) at baseline and at all of the follow-up assessments. The NRS has excellent metric properties, is easy to administer and score, and has received much use in LBP research. Pain data will be collected at baseline and at all endpoint visits.

We will use a volunteer self-report modified 24-item version of the RMDQ to assess LBP-related disability. The RMDQ may be the most common and respected LBP assessment instrument in LBP outcomes research. It is a one page questionnaire related to LBP disability with documented reliability and validity. It can discriminate between different forms of treatment for back pain, and it is sensitive to clinical change. The RMDQ has been chosen for a number of clinical trials of LBP treatments for its excellent metric properties, ease of use, patient acceptance, and high face validity. This questionnaire will be administered at baseline and at all endpoints. Higher score indicates higher disability. Scale: 0 (no disability) to 24 (maximum disability).

The bothersomeness of symptoms commonly associated with LBP will be measured using an existing measure from the LBP literature. Bothersomeness questions are practical and have demonstrated good internal consistency, construct validity, and responsiveness to change with time in patients with LBP and sciatica. Possible score ranges from 1 (not at all bothersome) to 5 (extremely bothersome).

Volunteers will be asked to rate their level of pain on that day on an ordinal 11-box scale (0=no LBP; 10=worst LBP possible) at baseline and at all of the follow-up assessments. The NRS has excellent metric properties, is easy to administer and score, and has received much use in LBP research. Pain data will be collected at baseline and at all endpoint visits. The question will capture information pertaining to pain over the last 24 hours.

Based on the pilot study, volunteers will most likely have been seen by other healthcare providers and prescribed pain medication by a primary care provider prior to being enrolled in the study, this questionnaire will ensure that we collect all healthcare and medication use.

This is a modification of the visual analog scale (VAS) developed to assess degree of improvement over a specified period of time. Global low back pain (LBP) improvement was assessed by asking participants to rate their perceived LBP improvement since baseline on a 7-point scale: 0 = completely gone, 1 = much better, 2 = moderately better, 3 = a little better, 4 = about the same, 5 = a little worse, 6 = much worse.

A one item patient satisfaction questionnaire. Satisfaction is measured as means on a numerical rating scale, 0 [not at all satisfied] to 10 [extremely satisfied].

Previous work has shown that patient expectation regarding benefit of care can be a significant non-specific effect. The score indicates participant's expectation of helpfulness of treatment for LBP, measured on a scale of 0 (not helpful at all) to 10 (extremely helpful).

The BPFS is a 12-question functional status survey designed for use as an individual patient decision-making tool. Each of the 12 questions is answered using a 5-point Likert-type scale and therefore scores for this scale will range from 0-60 (higher scores indicate better function). In recent studies, the BPFS is improved sensitivity to change than the RMDQ. This scale will be administered at baseline and all endpoint visits.

Inclusion Criteria: Age 18-50 (Inclusive) Diagnosis of acute, subacute or chronic low back pain Ability to provide voluntary written informed consent Active duty at one of the three participating military sites Exclusion Criteria: LBP from other than somatic tissues as determined by history, examination and course (i.e., pain referred from visceral conditions) Co-morbid pathology or poor health conditions that may directly impact spinal pain Volunteers who have case histories and physical examination findings indicating other than average good health Bone and joint pathology contraindicating CMT (Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy) Volunteers with recent spinal fracture (within the last 8 weeks), recent spinal surgery (within the last 12 weeks), concurrent spinal or paraspinal tumor(s), spinal or paraspinal infection(s), inflammatory arthropathies and significant/severe osteoporosis will be referred for appropriate care Other contraindications for CMT of the lumbar spine and pelvis (i.e., unstable spinal segments, cauda equine syndrome) Pregnant or planning to become pregnant within 3 months Altered mental capacity as determined by the clinician Unable to speak English Use of manipulative care for any reason within the past month Unwilling to provide phone and electronic contact information Unable to confirm that they will not be transferred during the active phase of the study, i.e., deployment, receive orders for a distant duty assignment or training site or otherwise be absent from the current military site over the next 8 weeks (active study participation period). Does not agree to be enrolled regardless of group assignment PTSD Classification

Goertz CM, Long CR, Vining RD, Pohlman KA, Kane B, Corber L, Walter J, Coulter I. Assessment of chiropractic treatment for active duty, U.S. military personnel with low back pain: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2016 Feb 9;17:70. doi: 10.1186/s13063-016-1193-8.

Goertz CM, Long CR, Vining RD, Pohlman KA, Walter J, Coulter I. Effect of Usual Medical Care Plus Chiropractic Care vs Usual Medical Care Alone on Pain and Disability Among US Service Members With Low Back Pain: A Comparative Effectiveness Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2018 May 18;1(1):e180105. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.0105.