5 for Monday

Thanks for starting the week correctly with a quickfire of articles! This one is a bit all things spinal heavy but hey!

1 - Altered proprioceptive weighting and trunk muscle activation in individuals with recurrent low back pain: a cross-sectional study

To kick us off this week this cross-sectional study showed that there really is a difference in muscle activation for people with low back pain. They found that balance is affected by less use of back musculature and a reliance on ankle proprioception and actually lifting was also different in terms of muscle activation. This I think could have interesting implications for rehab and training these patterns of movement may be beneficial - worth considering.

2 - The changing face of acute low back pain management by physiotherapists, osteopaths and chiropractors in the UK: a 20-year comparison from 2003 to 2023

So this one sounds quite boring on paper but bare with me! It shows that despite what may be portrayed about osteopaths and chiropractors on social media etc. they are adopting the best practice guidelines (albeit slower than other professions). The paper also shows a shift towards more active management and less reliance on manual therapy techniques which is also interesting. It's worth a read and see where your practice lines up!

3 - Comparative analysis of surgically treated degenerative cervical and lumbar spine diseases using multiple clinical aging indices

This is one of those helpful (well I think so anyway!) studies that looks at the ageing population. We all know that we are living longer and therefore some diseases, especially those that involve a degenerative component, are becoming more prevalent. Here patient's who underwent spinal surgery were studied and those who had degenerative cervical spine diseases showed generally poorer outcomes than those with lumbar spine disease. BUT... worse outcomes in terms of ageing well using multiple outcome measures! Physio should be able to impact function so worth considering when you're rehab'ing your next spinal patient!

4 - Assessing patient education materials about low back pain for understandability, actionability, quality, readability, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and coverage of information about patients’ needs

This was definitely interesting. I thought personally we did pretty well with patient education materials but then I thought more about what is out there in terms of low back pain and I could only really find some a one page sheet from Versus Arthritis (which is pretty useful especially for primary care so check it out) and then a load of self help rubbishy websites trying to sell me stuff. Definitely shows that things are lacking. Maybe look at making one for your patients? Hit us up if you do or have any useful resources and we will shout you out and share them!

5 - High prevalence of vertebral fractures associated with apnea-hypopnea index in patients with recent diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea

One for your history taking! I personally didn't know there was any link with sleep apnoea and bone health but there you go, learning something new is the name of the game. Definitely need to screen those patients a little bit more for possible vertebral fractures if they present with low back pain!

There you have it for another week! Hope you enjoyed this one. It will be going on Linkedin too as I want to try and get more people involved and enjoying the content to get some growth. Please share around and tag your colleagues and friends!