Objective

The efficacy of multidisciplinary functional restoration spine programs (FRP) has been demonstrated in terms of secondary prevention in chronic low-back pain (LBP), working lumbar spine reconditioning. Our LBP patients follow a FRP program, one day/week over 5 weeks, with self-rehabilitation the other days called “mini FRP”. The objective of the study is to compare responses to a mini-FRP program, between two groups from a population of patients working with LBP: “Sedentary Workers (SW)” and “Force Workers (FW)”.

Material/patients and methods

Retrospective study of 89 patients aged 18 to 65, divided into 44 SW and 45 FW, following a mini-FRP, between 2008 and 2014. The outcomes were differences in each group and between the two groups, for the Shirado-Ito test (SI), the Sorensen test (SO), the Quebec scale of LBP (QU) and the number of sick days related to LBP (SD) within 6 months following the end of the program compared to the previous 6 months.

Results

In both groups, significant improvement of SO (SW, + 54.0 seconds, P = 0.0011; FW, + 42.5 seconds, P = 0.019), QU (SW, −11.3%, P = 0.0009; FW, −11.4%, P = 0.002) and SD (SW, −26 days, P = 0.0018; FW, −37 days, P = 0.0121). SI improvements were not statistically significant. No significant difference was found regarding the improvement of the 4 criteria between the 2 groups, but trends: greater improvement of SO (isometric contraction of spinal muscles) in SW, and greater improvement of SI (isometric contraction of abdominal muscles), QU and SD in FW.

Discussion – conclusion

There was a significant improvement in 3 of 4 criteria in the 2 groups by the mini-FRP. Trends observed by comparing the 2 groups suggest proposing different FRP programs depending on physical constraints at work.