Accelerometer-Determined Physical Activity and Clinical Low Back Pain Measures in Adolescents With Chronic or Subacute Recurrent Low Back Pain.
Brent Leininger, Craig Schulz, Zan Gao and 5 others
PMID 28898136WHAT IT FOUND
Accelerometer data showed no meaningful link between how much adolescents with chronic low back pain moved and their pain, disability, or quality of life.
Activity levels did not explain clinical symptoms, suggesting movement volume alone is not a reliable marker of severity.
Key findings
01Objective physical activity measures showed no statistically significant association with low back pain intensity, disability, or quality of life.
02Physical activity levels explained less than 2% of the variance in clinical symptoms.
03Only 10.8% of participants met the recommended 60 minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The analysis was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine whether low activity causes pain or if pain causes low activity. Fifty participants were excluded from the original 143 due to insufficient accelerometer wear time, potentially introducing selection bias, though included and excluded groups were similar in characteristics. Participants may have removed the device during sports or swimming, leading to an underestimation of actual physical activity levels. The study focused on average weekly activity and may have missed daily fluctuations in pain and movement. Almost all participants had chronic pain (96%), so findings may not apply to those with acute or subacute episodes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no financial affiliations or conflicts of interest with commercial organizations.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that physical activity is irrelevant to low back pain management. This study only shows that the total amount of activity measured by an accelerometer does not correlate with current symptom severity. It does not prove that exercise therapy is ineffective for treating pain or improving function.