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Completed

NCT Number: NCT04203888

Personalized Trial for Chronic Lower Back Pain

The Personalized Trial of Chronic Lower Back Pain will test the feasibility of employing technology to facilitate remote N-of-1 interventions to research participants with self-identified back pain. Participants will spend 14 weeks alternating between massage, yoga, and usual care methods to treat their back pain, while answering daily questions and wearing an activity tracker. After 14 weeks, participants will have the ability to share their opinions about a Personalized Trials platform. We believe a Personalized Trials platform will be satisfactory to participants and feasible to scale to large randomized controlled trials, and eventually to clinical practice.

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Key information

Conditions

Back Pain Lower Back Chronic Back Pain Low Back Pain Neurologic Manifestations Pain Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Signs and Symptoms

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Center for Personalized Health

New York, 10022, United States

About this study

The Personalized Trial of Chronic Lower Back Pain will facilitate remote N-of-1 interventions to research participants with self-identified back pain persisting longer than 12 weeks. Participants will be randomized in a multiple crossover design to receive Swedish massage in-home by a commercial wellness service, yoga instruction in-home by a commercial wellness service, and no intervention/usual care. Participants will evaluate their pain intensity, pain interference, fatigue and stress daily through self-reported questionnaires. Online screening and enrollment methods, text-message reminders and questionnaire prompts, and wearable devices will be employed to collect data. At the end of the study, participants will receive a personalized report summarizing their observed data in each treatment period. Participants will evaluate the system usability of Personalized Trials, will debrief their experience with a member of the research team, and will share their overall satisfaction with Personalized Trials.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • At least 18 years of age
  • Fluent in English
  • Experiencing symptoms of low back pain for > 12 weeks
  • Self-reported pain intensity > 8 on the PROMIS pain intensity scale during screening
  • Able to receive massage and yoga interventions (2x/week between 8 am and 10 pm)
  • Owns and can regularly access a smartphone capable of receiving text messages
  • Owns and can regularly access an e-mail account

Exclusion criteria

  • Pregnant women
  • History of spinal surgery
  • Complex back pain (e.g. sciatica, spinal stenosis, or other pre-existing condition)
  • Previous diagnosis of a serious mental health condition or psychiatric disorder
  • Previous diagnosis of opioid use disorder or treatment for any substance use disorder
  • Previously advised that yoga or massage is unsafe for their condition
  • Current opioid use
  • Current physical activity restrictions
  • Planned surgery or procedures within 6 months of recruitment
  • Planned travel outside the United States within treatment period time-frame
  • Weight greater than or equal to 500 lbs.

Treatment and study plan

Swedish Massage

Other

60-minute Swedish Massage delivered in-home by a licensed massage therapist, 2 times per week with at least 48-hours between massage interventions.

yoga

Other

60-minute yoga session delivered in-home by a certified yoga instructor, 2 times per week with at least 48-hours between yoga interventions.Yoga sessions will be based on the yoga postures available in the appendix of the December 2005 Annals of Internal Medicine article, "Comparing Yoga, Exercise, and a Self-Care Book for Chronic Low Back Pain" (Sherman KJ et al., 2005).

Other names: Viniyoga

Primary outcomes

  1. Mean System Usability Score

    Time frame: Assessed once after the results report has been sent to the participant, within 8 weeks of intervention completion

    Usability of the Personalized Trials platform will be evaluated using the System Usability Scale (SUS), a 10-item questionnaire created by Digital Equipment Co Ltd. and John Brooke in 1986 that asks users to score each item on a Likert scale from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). Individual results are calculated to arrive at a composite measure out of 100. Participant SUS scores will be averaged together. Higher scored values correlate to a more usable system, and therefore a better outcome.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Mean Participant Satisfaction with Personalized Trials Components

    Time frame: Assessed once after the results report has been sent to the participant, within 8 weeks of intervention completion

    Participant satisfaction rated on a 5-point Likert scale from Very Dissatisfied (1) to Very Satisfied (5), or Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). Higher scores correlate to greater satisfaction, and therefore a better outcome.

  2. Mean Within-Subject Difference in Self-Reported Daily Pain Intensity During 3 Treatment Periods from Mean Baseline

    Time frame: From 2-Week Treatment Period 1 to 2-week Treatment Period 6

    Pain intensity is measured using the PROMIS Scale v1.0 - Pain Intensity 3a Fixed Length Short Form. The measure is modified from instructions to recall over the last 7 days to recall over the last 24 hours. Raw scores will be converted to an item response theory-based T-score using the PROMIS scoring manual. A T-score of 50 is the average for the US general population with an SD of 10. A higher T-score represents higher pain intensity or interference.

  3. Mean Within-Subject Difference in Self-Reported Daily Pain Interference During 3 Treatment Periods from Mean Baseline

    Time frame: From 2-Week Treatment Period 1 to 2-week Treatment Period 6

    Pain interference is measured using a PROMIS Short Form v1.0 - Pain Interference 4a Fixed Length Short Form. The measure is modified from instructions to recall over the last 7 days to recall over the last 24 hours. Raw scores will be converted to an item response theory-based T-score using the PROMIS scoring manual. A T-score of 50 is the average for the US general population with an SD of 10. A higher T-score represents higher pain intensity or interference.

  4. Mean Within-Subject Difference in Ecological Momentary Assessment Three-Times-Daily of Pain During 3 Treatment Periods from Mean Baseline

    Time frame: From 2-Week Treatment Period 1 to 2-week Treatment Period 6

    Numeric Pain Rating Scale adapted from McCaffery, Beebe et al. 1989 Numeric Pain Rating Scale, assessing current Pain level on a scale from 0 (none) to 10 (severe). Higher scores correlate to a worse outcome.

  5. Mean Within-Subject Difference in Ecological Momentary Assessment Three-Times-Daily of Fatigue During 3 Treatment Periods from Mean Baseline

    Time frame: From 2-Week Treatment Period 1 to 2-week Treatment Period 6

    Numeric Fatigue Rating Scale adapted from McCaffery, Beebe et al. 1989, assessing current Fatigue level on a scale from 0 (none) to 10 (severe). Higher scores correlate to a worse outcome.

  6. Mean Within-Subject Difference in Ecological Momentary Assessment Three-Times-Daily of Stress During 3 Treatment Periods from Mean Baseline

    Time frame: From 2-Week Treatment Period 1 to 2-week Treatment Period 6

    Numeric Stress Rating Scale adapted from McCaffery, Beebe et al. 1989, assessing current Stress level on a scale from 0 (none) to 10 (severe). Higher scores correlate to a worse outcome.

  7. Mean Within-Subject Difference in Self-Reported Use of Pain Medication from Baseline

    Time frame: From 2-Week Treatment Period 1 to 2-week Treatment Period 6

    Average number of pain medication pills self-reported by participants as taken to manage their back pain. Daily question to quantify how many pain pills taken in the last 24 hours, and of what type and dosage.

  8. Mean Within-Subject Difference in Device-Recorded Daily Steps from Mean Baseline

    Time frame: From 2-Week Treatment Period 1 to 2-week Treatment Period 6. Data collection to end after these 12 weeks.

    Average participant daily step data, as recorded by a Fitbit Charge 3 device.

  9. Mean Within-Subject Difference in Device-Recorded Nightly Sleep from Mean Baseline

    Time frame: From 2-Week Treatment Period 1 to 2-week Treatment Period 6. Data collection to end after these 12 weeks.

    Average participant sleep minutes and sleep stage minute estimates, as recorded by a Fitbit Charge 3 device.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Northwell Health

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Re-engineering Precision Therapeutics Through N-of-1 Trials

Important dates

Study start
2019
Primary completion
2021
Study completion
2021
First posted
Dec 18, 2019
Registry last updated
Feb 2, 2021

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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