The influence of the physical activity level in the clinical course of acute low back pain

Abstract

The non-specific low back pain, defined when a pathological cause cannot be identified, is the most common form of low back pain. The non-specific low back pain can be defined as acute when symptoms are present in less than six weeks. Low back pain is considered as the main cause of limitation, and absence from work. It is estimated that about 90% of patients return to work within three months, however many continue to have recurrent and/or persistent symptoms. Although current evidence is not capable of supporting a specific causative factor responsible for the occurrence of initial episodes of back pain, it is known that physical and psychosocial factors play an important role in the onset and persistence of this condition. Acute low back pain is multifactorial therefore is indispensable their understanding in order to predict its influence in the transition to a chronic condition. Little is known about the levels of physical activity and the individual factors of patients with acute low back pain and whether they are associated with pain and disability outcome, so the study aims to investigate whether patients with acute low back pain change their activity physical level over 3 and 6 months, analyse the capacity of the level of physical activity, individual and psychosocial factors in predicting pain outcomes, disability and recovery of the patient after 3 and 6 months. Patients will be recruited and evaluated from an objective and subjective measurement tools for physical activity, pain, disability, comorbidity, fear of movement, depression, sedentary behaviour and anthropometric data in the follow up of 3 and 6 months. The data will be analysed from univariate and multivariate linear regression analysis for prediction of clinical outcomes. (AU)