Resolving the Burden of Low Back Pain in Military Service Member and Veterans: A Multi-site Pragmatic Clinical Trial

Low back pain is painful, disabling, and expensive (from a patient's perspective), extremely difficult to effectively manage (from a provider's perspective), fraught with inefficiencies in care (from healthcare system's perspective), and may contribute to opioid dependence and abuse (from society's perspective). Adherence to the published physical therapy Clinical Practice Guidelines is advocated as a method to decrease utilization of ineffective therapies and increase adoption of evidence-based practices, with the goal of improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective care, but adherence rates in clinical settings are consistently low. The findings from this project have the potential to broadly impact management strategies for U.S. Service members and Veterans with low back pain using a non-pharmacological, best practice model.