Background: Neck and shoulder complaints are common in primary care physiotherapy. These patients experience pain and disability, resulting in high societal costs due to, for example, healthcare use and work absence. Content and intensity of physiotherapy care can be matched to a patient’s risk of persistent disabling pain. Mode of care delivery can be matched to the patient’s suitability for blended care (integrating eHealth with physiotherapy sessions). It is hypothesized that combining these two approaches to stratified care (referred to from this point as Stratified Blended Approach) will improve the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of physiotherapy for patients with neck and/or shoulder complaints compared to usual physiotherapy. Methods: This paper presents the protocol of a multicenter, pragmatic, two-arm, parallel-group, cluster randomized controlled trial. A total of 92 physiotherapists will be recruited from Dutch primary care physiotherapy practices. Physiotherapy practices will be randomized to the Stratified Blended Approach arm or usual physiotherapy arm by a computer-generated random sequence table using SPSS (1:1 allocation). Number of physiotherapists (1 or > 1) will be used as a stratification variable. A total of 238 adults consulting with neck and/or shoulder complaints will be recruited to the trial by the physiotherapy practices. In the Stratified Blended Approach arm, physiotherapists will match I) the content and intensity of physiotherapy care to the patient’s risk of persistent disabling pain, categorized as low, medium or high (using the Keele STarT MSK Tool) and II) the mode of care delivery to the patient’s suitability and willingness to receive blended care. The control arm will receive physiotherapy as usual. Neither physiotherapists nor patients in the control arm will be informed about the Stratified Blended Approach arm. The primary outcome is region-specific pain and disability (combined score of Shoulder Pain and Disability Index & Neck Pain and Disability Scale) over 9 months. Effectiveness will be compared using linear mixed models. An economic evaluation will be performed from the societal and healthcare perspective. Discussion: The trial will be the first to provide evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Stratified Blended Approach compared with usual physiotherapy in patients with neck and/or shoulder complaints.
BACKGROUND: Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP), Generalized Joint Hypermobility (GJH) and pain-related fear have influence on physical functioning in adolescents.AIM: to evaluate differences in physical functioning between adolescents with CMP, GJH or the combination of both, and in addition evaluate the potential contribution of pain-related fear.DESIGN: The design of this study was observational and cross-sectional.SETTING: The adolescents with CMP were recruited by a physician in rehabilitation medicine and measured in the university outpatient rehabilitation clinic (Adelante/Maastricht University Medical Center+, the Netherlands). The adolescents without CMP were recruited in the Southern area of the Netherlands and measured in the university outpatient rehabilitation clinic (Adelante/Maastricht University Medical Center+, the Netherlands).POPULATION: Four subgroups of adolescents were included; 21 adolescents with CMP without GJH, 9 adolescents with CMP and GJH, 51 adolescents without CMP without GJH, and 11 adolescents without CMP with GJH.METHODS: Outcome measures were muscle strength and endurance, motor performance, physical activity level, and pain-related fear. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to study differences in physical functioning and the contribution of pain-related fear in adolescents with/without CMP as well as with/without GJH.RESULTS: Adolescents with CMP had decreased muscle strength (P=0.01), endurance (P=0.02), and lower motor performance (P<0.01) compared to adolescents without CMP. Higher levels of pain-related fear were related to decreased muscle strength (P=0.01), endurance (P<0.01), and motor performance (P<0.01). No differences in physical functioning and pain-related fear between hypermobile and non-hypermobile adolescents with CMP were found.CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with CMP had decreased muscle strength and motor performance associated with increased levels of pain-related fear compared to adolescents without CMP. The association of being hypermobile with physical functioning is not more pronounced in adolescents with CMP.CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: No differences were found in physical functioning and pain-related fear between hypermobile adolescents with CMP compared to non-hypermobile adolescents with CMP. Future rehabilitation treatment in hypermobile adolescents with CMP should also focus on psychological components, such as pain-related fear.
BACKGROUND: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are a key topic in occupational health. In the primary prevention of these disorders, interventions to minimize exposure to work-related physical risk factors are widely advocated. Besides interventions aimed at the work organisation and the workplace, interventions are also aimed at the behaviour of workers, the so-called individual working practice (IWP). At the moment, no conceptual framework for interventions for IWP exists. This study is a first step towards such a framework.METHODS: A scoping review was carried out starting with a systematic search in Ovid Medline, Ovid Embase, Ovid APA PsycInfo, and Web of Science. Intervention studies aimed at reducing exposure to physical ergonomic risk factors involving the worker were included. The content of these interventions for IWP was extracted and coded in order to arrive at distinguishing and overarching categories of these interventions for IWP.RESULTS: More than 12.000 papers were found and 110 intervention studies were included, describing 810 topics for IWP. Eventually eight overarching categories of interventions for IWP were distinguished: (1) Workplace adjustment, (2) Variation, (3) Exercising, (4) Use of aids, (5) Professional skills, (6) Professional manners, (7) Task content & task organisation and (8) Motoric skills.CONCLUSION: Eight categories of interventions for IWP are described in the literature. These categories are a starting point for developing and evaluating effective interventions performed by workers to prevent WMSDs. In order to reach consensus on these categories, an international expert consultation is a necessary next step.KEYWORDS: Work related risk factors, Occupational training, Ergonomic interventions, Musculoskeletal diseases, Prevention and control
