CClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT04673773MY-RELIEFUpdated Apr 12, 2022

MY RELIEF- Evidence Based Information to Support People Aged 55+ Years Living and Working With Persistent Low-back Pain.

An interventional study of A Massive Open Online Course in Low Back Pain, sponsored by Lund University. Status unknown at 1 site in Sweden. Open to participants aged 65 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-04-12.

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

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Apr 2022), so the status shown — last known as Recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
100
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
65 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Low back pain is the main cause of activity limitation and work absence across the world, leading to a high social and economic burden for individuals, families, the labour market and society. This is particularly true for older adults of working age, employed in sedentary or arduous/strenuous jobs, whose work conditions may influence negatively this health problem and lead to severe persistent low back pain. Pain management is one of the most neglected aspects of healthcare and people suffering from persistent low back pain are often left without specific information, guidance and care from healthcare systems.

The MY-RELEF study is a multinational, multicenter, prospective uncontrolled, pre-post intervention feasibility study targeting people over the age of 55 years with persistent low back pain in Northern Lithuania, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and Portugal. Eligible participants will be offered the opportunity to use the MY RELIEF educational platform as part of their care and will undergo evaluations at baseline (enrollment) and at two-weeks and one-month follow-ups.

Read the detailed description

A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called MY RELIEF, have been developed. MY-RELIEF is built on best practices in e-learning, e-health and multimedia-based learning. The training package will be available on mobile devices such as a mobile phone or a tablet. The training is designed in short modules (10-12 minutes per module), possible to complete during a break in work. The MOOC will include short videos with older workers (aged 55+ years) with low back pain and professional experts, as well as knowledge tests and short factual texts. In addition, the target audience will have access to a serious game on their mobile phone that will track their health, and provide feedback on their potentially changing health status, and their engagement with the MOOC units.

The aim for this study is to determinate usability, acceptability and feasibility of a digital education program (MY-RELIEF) delivered via a MOOC for people aged 55+ years with persistent low back pain who are in sedentary or physically demanding jobs, and need advice on ergonomics, self-management of pain and healthy behavioral strategies.

The usability of the intervention will be measured with an industry standard tool to understand peoples ease of interaction with the MOOC and acceptability of the content and format of the MOOC will be measured via qualitative feedback from users.

Feasibility will be informed by the data on likely recruitment and follow up rates in each country for a main trial, floor and ceiling effects and completion rates on outcome measures, and likely within group effect sizes in response to the MOOC.

MY-RELIEF will help to improve and expand the range of high quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of people over the age of 55 years.

02

Conditions studied

  • Low Back Pain

Keywords

  • Low back pain
  • Older adults
  • Work
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 planned enrollment of 100 is above the median of 60 across 1,941 interventional studies indexed under Back Pain.

Browse Back Pain studies →

Lead sponsor

Lund University is the lead sponsor of 230 studies on the registry; 37 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
65 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. Understand Lithuanian (Lithuanian study), English (N Irish study), Italian (Italian study), Swedish (Sweden) and Portuguese (Portugal).
  2. Participant is willing and able to give informed consent for participation in the study via the study website.
  3. Persistent low back pain; defined as pain between scapulae and gluteal region, with or without radiation towards one or both legs, present for at least three months.
  4. Aged over 55 years
  5. In employment.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria

The participant may not enter the study if ANY of the following apply:

  1. People with unexplained symptoms
  2. People who have not seen a health care professional and received a diagnosis of persistent low back pain
  3. People who have been given a diagnosis of specific low back pain
  4. People with evidence of serious underlying pathology, such as a current diagnosis of cancer
  5. Anyone who has not used or have no interest in using a computer, laptop, tablet or mobile phone.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Health services research
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
100 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Feasibility / A massive open course

    1. The online MOOC contains eight units which cover the following topics (Understanding low back pain (LBP), Physical activity and exercise in relation to LBP, Psychological factors, Sleep / nutrition, Management of LBP at the workplace, Communication with health care, Other issues related to LBP). Each unit will include short factual texts, short videos (2-5mins) with older workers (aged 55+ years) with low back pain and professional experts, as well as knowledge tests. The complete MOOC will take 2-3 hours to complete. It would be possible to complete the MOOC at one time however users will be recommended to complete two units per week over a month period. 2. The mobile game is designed to encourage participation with the MOOC by providing feedback on engagement with the MOOC, presentation of quizzes to test knowledge gained on the MOOC, as well as feedback on clinical markers of their condition e.g. Mood, pain, physical activity levels.

    Behavioral: A Massive Open Online Course

Interventions

  • BehavioralA Massive Open Online Course

    Same as intervention

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Retention rates

    Of the people who are recruited into the study how many MOOC units do they complete

    Time frame: 4 weeks after baseline

  2. Recruitment of participants

    Percentage of people who participate in the intervention by signing up directly to the website versus the percentage who are recruited via the research team

    Time frame: 4 weeks after baseline

  3. User satisfaction with the MOOC

    Qualitative Semi-structured interviews/focus groups

    Time frame: 4 weeks after baseline

  4. Usability of the MOOC

    System usability Scale(SUS), is a simple, ten-item scale giving a global view of subjective assessments of usability. The selected statements in the SUS are measured on a five point Likert scale and cover a variety of aspects of system usability, such as the need for support, training, and complexity, and thus have a high level of validity for measuring usability of a system. The scale yield a score between 0-100 were high values represent high usability.

    Time frame: 4 weeks after baseline

  5. Change in Participant's health-related quality of life

    EQ-5D

    Time frame: At baseline and 4 weeks later

  6. Change in Functional disability

    Functional disability will be measured by the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire. The ODQ consists of 10 sections, each with six levels (with a maximum score in each section of five points) that assess an individual's limitations in various activities of daily living. The sum of all 10 sections is divided by the total possible score and the result multiplied by 100 to generate a percentage score. Values range from 0 (best health state) to 100 (worst health state).

    Time frame: At baseline and 4 weeks later

  7. Patient ability to cope with with illness and life after using the MOOC

    An adapted version of the Patient enablement Instrument (PEI), a six-item questionnaire designed to measure the patient's ability to understand and cope with illness and life following a consultation with a general practitioner will be used. Given this an adapted version of the PEI will be used, where the words 'after this appointment' and 'as a result of your visit to the doctor today' will be replaced by 'after using the Serious game (MOOC)' and 'as a result of using the Serious game(MOOC)

    Time frame: 4 weeks after baseline

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 12, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04673773
Lead sponsor
Lund University
Collaborators
University of Ulster, Kaunas University of Technology, Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura per Anziani
Responsible party
Eva Ekvall-Hansson (Associate Professor, Lund University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Dec 17, 2020
Start date
Sep 27, 2021
Primary completion
Dec 30, 2022 (estimated)
Completion
Jan 31, 2023 (estimated)
Last update
Apr 12, 2022

Study contacts

Eva Ekvall-Hansson, PhD
Contact
eva.ekvall-hansson@med.lu.se
+46 46 222 19 86
Caroline Larsson, PhD
Contact
caroline.larsson@med.lu.se
+46 46 222 19 86
Eva Ekvall-Hansson, PhD
principal investigator · Lund University

Oversight

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

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