Identifying prognostic factors to determine the level of recovery in servicemembers with chronic low back pain: A prospective cohort study.

The main objective of this study was to identify general and military-related factors that are associated with the level of recovery in Dutch service members with chronic low back pain (CLBP) who followed a rehabilitation program. One hundred five consecutive service members with CLBP were included in this study. The level of disability, was used to distinguish a recovered and non-recovered group. Level of pain and self-perceived recovery were used as secondary outcome measurements. Differences were evaluated within and between the groups using the Student's t-test Bivariate logistic regression analyses were used for identifying the prognostic factors related to various outcomes of recoveryRESULTS: After following the rehabilitation program, 64.8% of the service members recovered from CLBP. The recovered group, demonstrated significant effect sizes in disability and in pain The non-recovered group showed on disability a non-significant effect and in pain a significant effect. The self-perceived recovery in the recovered group was "much improved" and the non-recovered group "slightly improved". The results of the bivariate regression analyses showed no significant independent prognostic factors related to recovery. In this study, no significant independent prognostic factors could be identified that were associated to the various outcomes of recovery in service members with CLBP who followed a rehabilitation program.