Back problems are among the most common causes of sick leave. Every year as many as one in 15 adults in Norway sees a doctor or physiotherapist due to lower back pain. Worldwide, back pain is the most common cause of disability.
Many people are afraid to be physically active when they experience back pain, but reducing the activity level often prolongs or even aggravates the condition.
In a new study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, researchers developed the system for a new app called selfBACK.
The app will enable more people to deal with back pain in a better way, and could potentially bring huge savings for people’s working life and for society.
The app explains what back pain is, and it tailors advice and feedback to actions you can take to deal with the pain, including physical activity and exercise.
Each week, the app provides you with your own customized plan to follow.
Since the app uses artificial intelligence and draws on other people’s experiences with back pain, the advice you receive will be specially personalized for your needs.
To evaluate the effect of the selfBACK app, the researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial that included 461 patients with back pain from Norway and Denmark.
About half of the study participants received standard treatment from their health providers. The other half received standard treatment as well, but also used selfBACK.
Participants reported on their progress after three, six and nine months of using the app.
After three months, 39% of the participants in the control group reported that they had experienced major improvements in their back pain, compared to 52% of the participants who used the selfBACK app.
This means that the probability of a major improvement was about 32 per cent higher for participants who used selfBACK. The same differences were also present after six and nine months.
If you care about back pain, please read studies about can depression drugs help reduce chronic back pain and osteoarthritis? and findings of this diet may increase your risk of low back pain.
For more information about back pain and your health, please see recent studies about many older people with low back pain don’t get recommended treatment and results showing that this brain change linked to chronic back pain.
The study is published in JAMA Internal Medicine. One author of the study is Paul Jarle Mork.
Get the app at www.selfback.dk
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