Working Well With Back Pain (Feasibility RCT of Vocational Rehabilitation)
Working Well With Back Pain (Feasibility RCT of Vocational Rehabilitation)
Back pain has a major impact on people's ability to work. Health professionals need to know
 how they can best use their limited resources to address the occupational needs of people
 with chronic low back pain. Vocational rehabilitation is the process that helps people with
 health problems to stay at, return to and remain at work. This study comprises the second
 phase of a three year study of back pain and vocational rehabilitation. The first phase
 gathered data from patient interviews and postal surveys of GPs and GP practice managers.
 These findings have been used to inform this second phase; a feasibility randomised
 controlled trial. The participants will be thirty employed people with back pain who have
 been offered an NHS rehabilitation programme, and who are concerned about their ability to
 work with low back pain. Those who consent will be randomised into two groups. One group will
 receive routine rehabilitation. The other will receive routine rehabilitation plus an
 individually tailored vocational intervention carried out by the researcher. Following the
 trial, individual interviews will be carried out with each of the participants by an
 independent researcher. An economic study will evaluate the possibility of measuring the
 cost-effectiveness of the intervention. The hypothesis is that an enhanced vocational
 intervention plus routine rehabilitation will be more effective in improving patients' work
 ability than routine rehabilitation alone.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  low back pain

 -  offered routine rehabilitation

 -  employed

 -  concern about work ability due to low back pain

 -  referral by GP in South Nottinghamshire

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  not fluent in English