Study: tool encourages workers to self-manage back pain

A study into the effectiveness of a tool designed to help workers manage back pain has yielded some interesting results. 

Speaking at the Health and Wellbeing @ Work conference in Birmingham last week, Dr Liba Sheeran, a reader in physiotherapy at Cardiff University, said the Back-on-Line self-management tool, which was developed in collaboration with employers in sectors including healthcare, manufacturing and transport, has helped encourage behaviours to improve spinal health.

The tool, accessed by a website and an app, encourages workers to complete a self-assessment questionnaire about their back pain. They are given a score that assists in determining what interventions, such as physical activity or education, might help alleviate their issue.

Sheeran said: “Lower back pain develops over time and we should try to look at it as a public health problem that should be managed by education and early intervention. Early self-management that is tailored to individual needs is preferred now to stop chronicity. Physical activity and exercise are part of this equation.”

She said many self-management tools bombard workers with information and resources, but do not necessarily change behaviours and are rarely tailored to individual needs. The content provided is not always evidence-based, she claimed, and physical activity is often underrepresented in advice.

The advice provided through Back-on-Line is tailored to the individual and the problems causing them pain. The suggested interventions are intended to be put into practice at work.

She said it is important for the developers of such tools to engage with workplaces to ensure they are fit for their needs. Back-on-Line has been trialled by employers including NHS Wales, Transport for London and food ingredients firm Silvermill – all in sectors with a higher prevalence of back pain.

The project, which received funding from the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health and Social Care, saw 67% of study participants agree that Back-on-Line was useful in helping with their back problem, and that they would recommend it to others.

Eighty-five per cent said it was easy to use, but some participants disagreed that the interventions were easy to integrate into their working day.

“This is an interesting [finding] that we have looked at in subsequent research in the rail sector. Even though they had access to these resources, they found it hard to integrate the advice in their  work, so many started to exercise in their homes,” said Sheeran.

Over the study period, the researchers saw an average of 22 log-ins per user. Seventy per cent of users were female and the mean age was 42.7 years. Sixty-four per cent of users were from the NHS, said Sheeran.