Predicting recurrence of LBP after an acute episode
A 1-year study was conducted to find out: 1) The recurrence rate of low back pain (LBP) following recovery from an acute episode of LBP; 2) For those who experienced recurrent pain, how many of them went on to seek help from a primary care setting; and 3) Any attributable risk factors to the recurrence.
832 of 999 participants, who presented to a primary care setting for an acute episode of LBP, were successfully contacted for the 1-year follow up.
Out of these, 469 participants had recovered from the initial episode of pain just within 6 weeks. Following their recovery, 33% of these participants had recurrent LBP.
More than half of the participants who had recurrent pain sought help from a primary care professional.
In addition to the above recurrence rate, the authors sought to find the association between the recurrent of LBP and risk factors, such as age, gender, BMI, duration of the episode, days to seek care et cetera.
Out of the list of risk factors, the factor that showed significant association was that if the participant reported 2 or more previous episodes of LBP, they were 3 times more likely to have recurrent episodes.
In summary, this study concludes that after an acute episode of LBP, about a third will experience recurrence, of which half will seek help in a primary care setting. At the same time, a past history of 2 or more previous episodes of LBP triples the chances of recurrent episodes within 1 year.
> From: Machado et al., Phys Ther 97 (2018-01-15 08:35:25) 889-895. All rights reserved to American Physical Therapy Association. Click here for the online summary.
