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CompletedNCT03523793Updated Oct 23, 2023

Clinical Practice Guidelines for Neck and Low Back Pain in Outpatient Physical Therapy

An interventional study of Clinical Practice Guideline Implementation and Standard Care in Neck Pain and Low Back Pain, sponsored by University of Florida. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 85 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-10-23.

Sponsored by University of Florida · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
1,441
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years to 85 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study will investigate implementation of a process to enhance Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) adherence to limit unwarranted variability in initial treatment decisions with high potential for providing more effective and efficient physical therapy management for patients with neck and low back pain.

Read the detailed description

Effective implementation of CPGs to augment initial clinical decision making during physical therapy management of patients with spine related musculoskeletal pain will have several important goals: 1) improve patient pain and disability outcomes, 2) limit over utilization of physical therapy services, and 3) increase adherence to limit unwarranted variation in clinical practice. This proposed pilot study proposal will test if a multifaceted intervention strategy for implementation of neck and low back CPG meets these goals and provide necessary data for larger system wide implementation efforts.

Specific Aim 1: Determine if physical therapy clinics that receive neck and low back pain (LBP) clinical practice guideline (CPG) training are associated with improved patient outcomes compared to those that have not received training. Neck and LBP specific disability and pain intensity will be assessed at intake, on a weekly basis and at discharge (Specific Aim 1a). Secondary patient outcomes will consist of patient satisfaction scores (Specific Aim 1b). Statistical analyses will evaluate for temporal effects of training considering the stepped wedge study design.

Specific Aim 2: Determine if multifaceted interventions for CPG implementation positively impacts physical therapist beliefs, attitudes, knowledge and behaviors over time. CPG adherence (by clinicians) will be indirectly assessed using quantitative and qualitative methods consisting of: 1) clinician checklists, 2) clinician questionnaires, 3) quality indicators, and 4) total proportion outcome measure assessments (Specific Aim 2).

02

Conditions studied

  • Neck Pain
  • Low Back Pain

Keywords

  • Outpatient Physical Therapy
03

In context

Back Pain

2,373 studies on the registry are indexed under Back Pain; 284 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 1,441 is above the median of 60 across 1,941 interventional studies indexed under Back Pain.

Browse Back Pain studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Florida is the lead sponsor of 1,254 studies on the registry; 201 are open to participants now.

Of its 170 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 136 (80%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 85 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • 18 years of age or older
  • Receiving outpatient physical therapy for a diagnosis covered in previously published CPGs for neck or LBP
  • Able to read and comprehend English language (necessary for completion of self-report e-forms)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Any diagnosis indicating systemic involvement
  • Widespread chronic pain syndrome
  • Neuropathic pain syndromes
  • Neurological disorders.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Health services research
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
1,441 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Physical Therapists - CPG

    Cross-sectional stepped wedge design with 16 physical therapy clinics (including approximately 40 physical therapists) being allocated to one of 4 sequences that differ in CPG implementation time (each sequence consisting of 4 clinics). This proposed study will be conducted over 68 weeks, with the initial 12 weeks serving as a baseline washout phase (before any clinic has received training), then 4 clinics crossing over from standard care (control) to CPG and decision support tool implementation (intervention) approximately every 8 weeks until week 44 when all 4 sequences (16 clinics) have completed training.

    Behavioral: Clinical Practice Guideline Implementation

  • Active comparator
    Physical Therapists - Control

    This proposed study will be conducted over 68 weeks, with the initial 12 weeks serving as a baseline washout phase (before any clinic has received training), then 4 clinics crossing over from standard care (control) to CPG and decision support tool implementation (intervention) approximately every 8 weeks until week 44 when all 4 sequences (16 clinics) have completed training.

    Other: Standard Care

Interventions

  • BehavioralClinical Practice Guideline Implementation

    The Study team will use several methods from the implementation strategy taxonomy of the Effective Practice and Organization of Care (EPOC) classification system to improve our likelihood for successful neck and low back pain implementation consisting of: 1) educational materials, workshops and outreach visits from trainers; 2) external consultant testimonials; 3) iterative quality improvement processes (including ongoing analysis of clinician feedback to improve process); 4) routine collection of patient reported outcomes to engage discussion among clinician groups and outpatient division leaders) and 5) local organization consensus process (including feedback from key outpatient division stakeholders).

  • OtherStandard Care

    Considering the stepped wedge design with a 12-week washout phase, clinics will be providing standard physical therapy prior to receiving clinical practice guideline training.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Oswestry Disability Index (ODI)

    The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), which has 10 items that assesses how low back pain affects common daily activities. The ODI has a range of 0% "no disability due to low back pain" to 100% "completely disabled due to low back pain", with higher scores indicating higher disability from low back pain.

    Time frame: 68 weeks

  2. Neck Disability Index (NDI)

    The Neck Disability Index (NDI), which has 10 items that assesses how neck pain affects common daily activities. The NDI has a range of 0% "no disability due to neck pain" to 100% "completely disabled due to neck pain", with higher scores indicating higher disability from neck pain.

    Time frame: 68 weeks

  3. Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS)

    Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) Pain intensity will be rated using a NPRS, ranging from "0" (no pain) to "10" (worst pain imaginable). Patients will be asked to rate their current pain intensity, as well as their best and worst level of pain intensity over the past 24 hours. These 3 pain ratings will averaged and used as the NPRS variable in this study.

    Time frame: 68 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Rehabilitation Outpatient Division Patient Satisfaction Survey

    To assess overall therapy experience and explanations provided by therapist.

    Time frame: 68 weeks

  2. Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire (EBPQ)

    The Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire (EBPQ) to assess clinician beliefs, attitudes, knowledge and self-reported behaviors regarding evidence-based practice and clinical practice guidelines. Responses range from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.

    Time frame: 68 weeks

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Brooks Rehabilitation
    Jacksonville, Florida 32216, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Beneciuk JM, Osborne R, Hagist MB, Crittenden J, Buzzanca KE, Gao H, Wu SS. American Physical Therapy Association Clinical Practice Guideline Implementation for Neck and Low Back Pain in Outpatient Physical Therapy: A Nonrandomized, Cross-sectional Stepped-Wedge Pilot Study. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2022 Feb;52(2):113-123. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2022.10545. PubMed 35100820 ↗

Related links

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 23, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03523793
Lead sponsor
University of Florida
Collaborators
Foundation for Physical Therapy Research, Brooks Rehabilitation
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
May 14, 2018
Start date
Aug 14, 2018
Primary completion
Mar 8, 2022
Completion
Mar 8, 2022
Last update
Oct 23, 2023

Study contacts

Jason Beneciuk, DPT,PhD,MPH
principal investigator · University of Florida; Brooks Rehabilitation

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2023. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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