Exploring What Factors Mediate Treatment Effect: Example of the STarT Back Study High-Risk Intervention.

ABSTRACT: Interventions developed to improve disability outcomes for low back pain (LBP) often show only small effects. Mediation analysis was used to investigate what led to the effectiveness of the STarT Back trial, a large primary care-based trial that treated patients consulting with LBP according to their risk of a poor outcome. The high-risk subgroup, randomized to receive either psychologically-informed physiotherapy (n = 93) or current best care (n = 45), was investigated to explore pain-related distress and pain intensity as potential mediators of the relationship between treatment allocation and change in disability. Structural equation modeling was used to generate latent variables of pain-related distress and pain intensity from measures used to identify patients at high risk (fear-avoid

SUBMITTER: Mansell G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5123895 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature