Back School Efficacy on Low Back Pain and Quality of Life of Workers. COPCORD STUDY (Stage II)

The Efficacy of Back School on Low Back Pain and Quality of Life of Workers of a Pharmaceutics Company in Tehran Suburb. COPCORD Study (Stage II)

The study is an intervention, Phase II COPCORD study. (COPCORD= Community Oriented Program to Control Rheumatic Diseases). The purpose of this study is to find if Back School training has any benefit on low back pain of the workers in a pharmaceutical factory in Tehran suburbs.

A back school will be held on at the Modava Pharmaceutical Factory, in Tehran suburbs. We estimate that this prospective study will include almost one third of the 70 workers in the factory. The study provides objective data and subjective information from patients. The clinical benefits of back school on low back pain and quality of life will be reported at the beginning and the end of intervention and after a period of 6 months follow up.

All the workers undergo a clinical examination for low back pain, by two trained practitioner. Those workers who are diagnosed for mechanical low back pain during the last six months fulfill a self report Quality of Life Questionnaire (SF36). The objective level of low back pain will obtain by a visual analogue scale. Then a back school training course will be held in 6 sessions, in 6 consecutive weeks. Two previously trained physiotherapists are responsible for the training course. Each series will have 10 participants. They will learn vertebral column anatomy and its function at the first session. The proper posture and exercises to reduce or inhibit low back pain are taught in the next 4 sessions. The 6th session is arranged for answering questions and checking how exercises are performed. A visual analogue scale and quality of life assessment will be held at the end of the last session and the end of the sixth month.

1- Comparison of quality of life in patients with low back pain before and after Back school training. 2- Comparison of low back pain based on a visual analogue scale before and after back school training.

Inclusion Criteria: History of mechanical low back pain in the last six months Exclusion Criteria: History of inflammatory spinal diseases Severe scoliosis History of spinal surgery History of spinal malignancy