CClinicalTrials.gg
TerminatedNCT01865539Updated May 16, 2022Results posted

Efficacy of Foot Orthotics in Veterans With Chronic Lower Back Pain

An interventional study of Custom Foot Orthotic and Sham Orthotic in Back Pain Lower Back Chronic, sponsored by Canandaigua VA Medical Center. Terminated at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-05-16.

Sponsored by Canandaigua VA Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was terminated
Difficulty with recruitment/funding
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
51
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

A randomized sham controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of the use of custom foot orthotics in veterans suffering from chronic lower back pain. The current study hypothesizes that those veterans with chronic lower back pain who receive the custom foot orthotics will show greater improvements in pain and disability associated with the chronic lower back pain than those who receive the sham orthotic.

Read the detailed description

Specific Aim 1: Utilizing a gold standard sham controlled randomized trial design, we will evaluate the change in pain, back related disability and quality of life in Veterans with chronic lower back pain who utilize either a custom foot orthotic or a sham orthotic.

As part of this aim the investigators will build on the teams strength of recruiting and enrolling Veteran's with chronic lower back pain into a randomized trial. The investigators will collect baseline pain and disability measures utilizing validated tools. Once the patients are enrolled, utilizing the "gold standard" placebo controlled design the investigators will randomize patients to receive either a custom foot orthotic or a sham orthotic. The Veterans will then be assessed at 5, 12 and 24-weeks post baseline to evaluate differences in pain and disability. Based on previous studies on the effectiveness of custom foot orthotics the investigators hypothesize that that Veteran's who receive the custom orthotic will experience less pain and disability as compared to those who receive the sham orthotics.

Specific Aim 2: To evaluate baseline characteristics of Veterans with chronic lower back pain predictive of responsiveness to custom foot orthotics including age, BMI, psychosocial characteristics and arch classification.

Focusing on the Veterans who receive the custom foot orthotic, the investigators next examine the important characteristics that may predict those Veterans who are most likely to benefit from wearing custom foot orthotics. Assessing potential confounders or facilitators of effectiveness of the custom foot orthotic will allow the investigators to best describe potential mechanisms of responsiveness. The investigators have chosen previously described confounders to responsiveness to treatment of chronic lower back pain, specifically age, body mass index and psychosocial characteristics. This methodology is particularly important in a sham controlled trial to assess if effectiveness or lack of thereof, is a factor of the intervention or from other confounding variables. The investigators have also chosen to evaluate the arch classification based on the measurement of the Veterans arch; again this allows for specific recommendations concerning use of this product. Based on previous studies on the effectiveness of custom foot orthotics in addition to previous studies evaluating chronic lower back pain the investigators hypothesize that those Veterans who are older, have a higher BMI and greater fear avoidance belief scores will show less responsiveness to the custom foot orthotics as compared to those younger Veterans who have a lower BMI and lower fear avoidance belief scores. In addition based on previous biomechanical literature, the investigators feel that those Veterans with a lower arch will show the greatest responsiveness to the custom foot orthotic.

02

Conditions studied

  • Back Pain Lower Back Chronic

Keywords

  • Chronic lower back pain
  • Custom foot orthotics
  • Veterans
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

Ages 18-65 Lower back pain ≥ 3 months in duration Pain elicited upon deep palpation of the lumbar erector spinae musculature Primary complaint of CLBP from L1 to Sacroiliac joint inclusive. Ability/willingness to use orthotics in their shoes Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NRPS) of ≥ 3

  • 30 mm on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)
  • 20% for the Modified Oswestry Disability Index (mODI)

Exclusion criteria

EXCLUSION:

spinal surgery, spinal injections or injections in their feet within the past 6 months Inability to use orthotics in shoes Custom foot orthotics within the past 12 months Currently undergoing Chiropractic, Physical Therapy or Acupuncture treatment for their chronic lower back pain.

evidence of cauda equina syndrome, spinal neoplasia or metastatic disease, destructive joint pathology such as rheumatoid arthritis bowel/bladder dysfunction (associated with the back pain) peripheral neuropathy or progressive lumbosacral radiculopathy, progressive myelopathy or neurogenic claudication.

open workers compensation or no fault case.

04

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
51 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Custom Foot Orthotic

    Custom foot orthotic

    Device: Custom Foot Orthotic

  • Sham comparator
    Sham Orthotic

    Will be a sham orthotic that will be the same as the actual orthotic without the custom support pads.

    Device: Sham Orthotic

Interventions

  • DeviceCustom Foot Orthotic

    Custom foot orthotic with custom design pads

    Also known as: Foot Levelers Custom Foot Orthotic

  • DeviceSham Orthotic

    Leather insert without the custom design pads

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Visual Analog Scale (VAS)

    Visual Analog Scales (VAS): VAS is rated from 0 to 100mm with 0 being no pain at all and 100mm being the worst pain imaginable. The test has shown test-retest reliability, intra-examiner reliability and inter-examiner reliability.

    Time frame: 24 weeks.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Modified Oswestry Disability Index (mODI)

    The back pain specific, self-rating scale evaluates the degree of functional impairment that a patient is experiencing in a number of activities of daily living. Oswestry is scored on a scale of 0-50 with 0 - 4 No disability 5 - 14 Mild disability 15 - 24 Moderate disability 25 - 34 Severe disability 35 - 50 Completely disabled

    Time frame: 24 weeks.

  2. Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function

    For PROMIS measures, higher scores equals more of the concept being measured (more Physical Function). Thus a score of 60 is one standard deviation above the average referenced population. Specifically for PROMIS Physical function 50 indicates the reference population, therefore a score of 40 would be lower physical function.

    Time frame: 24 weeks.

06

Results

Posted May 16, 2022
Limitations and caveats
Due to low power secondary to issues with subject recruitment, the findings of this study were inconclusive.

Participant flow

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestoneCustom Foot OrthoticSham Orthotic
Started2130
Completed2130
Not completed00

Outcome measures

PrimaryVisual Analog Scale (VAS)

Visual Analog Scales (VAS): VAS is rated from 0 to 100mm with 0 being no pain at all and 100mm being the worst pain imaginable. The test has shown test-retest reliability, intra-examiner reliability and inter-examiner reliability.

Time frame:
24 weeks.
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Visual Analog Scale (VAS)
units on a scaleCustom Foot OrthoticSham Orthotic
Visual Analog Scale (VAS)57.7 ± 15.659.2 ± 14.9
SecondaryModified Oswestry Disability Index (mODI)

The back pain specific, self-rating scale evaluates the degree of functional impairment that a patient is experiencing in a number of activities of daily living. Oswestry is scored on a scale of 0-50 with 0 - 4 No disability 5 - 14 Mild disability 15 - 24 Moderate disability 25 - 34 Severe disability 35 - 50 Completely disabled

Time frame:
24 weeks.
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Modified Oswestry Disability Index (mODI)
units on a scaleCustom Foot OrthoticSham Orthotic
Modified Oswestry Disability Index (mODI)40.3 ± 13.237.1 ± 12.2
SecondaryPatient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function

For PROMIS measures, higher scores equals more of the concept being measured (more Physical Function). Thus a score of 60 is one standard deviation above the average referenced population. Specifically for PROMIS Physical function 50 indicates the reference population, therefore a score of 40 would be lower physical function.

Time frame:
24 weeks.
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function
units on a scaleCustom Foot OrthoticSham Orthotic
Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function38.3 ± 3.940.9 ± 4.1

Adverse events

Collected over 6 months. Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
Custom Foot Orthotic0/21 (0%)0/21 (0%)0/21 (0%)
Sham Orthotic0/30 (0%)0/30 (0%)0/30 (0%)

Baseline characteristics

Age, Categorical
Age, Categorical(Participants)Custom Foot OrthoticSham OrthoticTotal
<=18 years000
Between 18 and 65 years213051
>=65 years000
Age, Continuous
Age, Continuous(years)Custom Foot OrthoticSham OrthoticTotal
Mean58.2 ± 8.155.1 ± 10.556.4 ± 9.7
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)Custom Foot OrthoticSham OrthoticTotal
Female145
Male202646
Region of Enrollment
Region of Enrollment(participants)Custom Foot OrthoticSham OrthoticTotal
United States213051
07

Study locations

1 site
  • Rochester Outpatient Clinic (ROPC) of the Canandaigua VA Medical Center
    Rochester, New York 14620, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Sahar T, Cohen MJ, Uval-Ne'eman V, Kandel L, Odebiyi DO, Lev I, Brezis M, Lahad A. Insoles for prevention and treatment of back pain: a systematic review within the framework of the Cochrane Collaboration Back Review Group. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2009 Apr 20;34(9):924-33. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e31819f29be. PubMed 19359999 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01865539
Lead sponsor
Canandaigua VA Medical Center
Collaborators
Foot Levelers, Inc., Northeast College of Health Sciences
Responsible party
Paul Dougherty, DC (Chiropractor, Canandaigua VA Medical Center) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 31, 2013
Start date
May 2013
Primary completion
Jan 2016
Completion
Jun 2016
Results posted
May 16, 2022
Last update
May 16, 2022

Study contacts

Paul E Dougherty, DC
principal investigator · Canandaigua VA Medical Center/ New York Chiropractic College

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is terminated, as verified in Apr 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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