An app-based exercise program for public safety workers with chronic back pain
Adding self-managed core exercises to app-based health education improved pain and disability compared with education alone. Several other outcomes showed no between-group differences.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Public safety workers receiving the exercise-plus-education program had greater reductions in pain and disability than those receiving education alone at 8 weeks. Disability benefits remained at 16 weeks, but the abstract does not report lasting pain benefits. The findings support a difference in this occupational group while leaving its everyday magnitude unclear.
The abstract does not name the pain or disability scales, so its score differences cannot be translated into everyday symptom changes. The participants were public safety workers with chronic back pain.
What researchers found
Primary outcomes
At 8 weeks, compared with app-based health education alone; the abstract does not identify the measurement scales.
Which changes lasted?
Disability, quality of life and anxiety improvements remained at the later follow-up. The abstract reports persistence for those specific outcomes, so the earlier pain improvement should not be assumed to have lasted equally long.
Which outcomes showed no clear difference?
The groups did not differ on depression, stress, sleep quality or neuromuscular outcomes. These findings limit the range of demonstrated benefits; they do not establish that the program has exactly no effect on those measures.
The original publication
Effectiveness of an app-delivered, self-management exercise program in public safety workers with chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial.
Marins EF, Primo TT, Vasconcelos BB et al.
Braz J Phys Ther · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40651078
- Record checked
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