Back Guide: A Student-Led Model for Supporting Self-Management of Low Back Pain at Work

Conflicts of interest: ‘No conflicts of interest’ Sources of funding ‘National Health Service Education’ Introduction Back Guide is a physiotherapy student-led intervention to support workers to self-manage their low back pain (LBP) at work. It was co-designed and piloted at a local authority (LA). Back Guide It is a de-medicalised evidence-informed package comprising (supervised) student-led sessions, either online or face to face. The students have a work-LBP conversation with the worker to promote positive beliefs, identify obstacles to working and agree goals. They jointly agree an action plan framed by a discussion under the WOOP framework – w ish, o utcome, o bstacle, p lan, which is shared with managers. Pilot Results LA workers (n=66) were recruited to the Back Guide pilot: job roles covered desk-based, hybrid and manual; most participants attended two sessions. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests revealed a statistically significant increase in post-intervention Work Ability scores (Z=2.23; P<0.017) and Back Beliefs scores (Z=−6.98=0.0; P<0.001). Progression was made on >85% of the goals. All the stakeholder groups – LA, managers, workers, students, lecturers – deemed it to be a feasible intervention, and the LA have agreed to continue to commission Back Guide. 97% of respondents reported the intervention was feasible and that they were satisfied or very satisfied. Conclusion The LA and the workers considered the intervention to be helpful for supporting LA staff to self-manage their LBP at work. While improved Back Beliefs and Work Ability may, in principle, correlate with reduced LBP absence and work disability, further research is required to explore its real impact on these outcomes.