Back care instructions in physical therapy: A trend analysis of individualized back care programs

Background and Purpose. The treatment of people with low back pain often in cludes giving a variety of instructions about back care. The objective of o ur study was to explore the content and sequence of these:se instructions. Subjects, Our database contained information on 1,151 therapy sessions for 132 patients who were treated by 21 therapists. Methods, Hierarchical linear modeling was used to establish trends in instr uctions during the course of treatment. Instructions were measured by means of a registration form. Results, Pain management instructions were given at the start of treatment and the decreased in later sessions, Instructions about taking care of the back in daily activities followed the same course. Exercise instructions we re induced after the start of treatment and were spread evenly across the v isits. The number of recommendations about general fitness decreased during treatment. Conclusion and Discussion, The majority of back care instructions were spre ad evenly across therapy visits. Relatively little variation in instruction s among patients was seen, which may indicate a lack of individualization o f the back care programs. [Kerssens JJ, Sluijs EM, Verhaak PFM, et al. Back care instructions in physical therapy: a trend analysis of individualized back care programs. Phys Ther. 1999;79:286-295.3].