Back Pain Disability Treatment Research Proposal

Back Pain Disability Treatment - Research Proposal Example The title is concise in that it provides information in brief. From the title, there can be idea of the objective, but no idea about the content is available. However, the proposer clearly indicates the research approach used, which is randomised controlled trial. All studies can be categorized as experimental, quasi-experimental/pre-experimental, or non-experimental in design. From the title it appears that the researcher wants to design an experimental study with the purpose of determining the clinical outcomes of physiotherapy and related patient preferences for treatment of back pain. This is a clinical trial, and these studies are designed to determine whether the hypothesised clinical intervention will be effective. In this case, the trial was conceived since in mechanical back pain, surgery is never offered as an option of treatment. This trial was proposed with the purpose of comparing two treatment strategies, namely, physiotherapy for back pain chosen by patients and physiotherapy for back pain offered by the physiotherapist in alleviating back pain of the patients. If one goes back to examine the title again, this comparison through randomised controlled trial is not explicit in the title, so there is an obvious confusion on the ai m, purpose, and objective of the study. This study has been proposed to be done in a single physiotherapy department, and therefore this is not a multicentric trial. This reduces the authenticity of the findings in terms of internal and external validity. As a result the reliability will be compromised, and hence evidently there would be lack of generalisability of the outcomes. Thus, applications of the findings in the clinical practice would be severely limited even through the study is able to generate some valid results (Rumoren and Sunday, 2006). Brief Synopsis of the Project Low back pain is a problem with considerable disability with direct cost implications in terms of NHS resource utilisation. Due to its common occurrence, many patients present to GP and utilise other health and social care resources. It is also an important cause of disability, and thus there are implications of work hour losses. From the NHS point of view, low back pain has been demonstrated to represent both public and private costs. Other than the conventional treatment modalities, it is now known that prompt physiotherapy is an acceptable service for these patients. For the physiotherapists, the problem remains which could be the best form of therapy, which the patients choose or what the physiotherapist advises. In many cases, low back pain has no associated organic problem, and thus recovery cannot be ascertained by any investigative objective means. Moreover, pain has a subjective element. Therefore assessment of recovery can be done with a validated instrument, and if this va lidated assessment instrument is used to compare the responses of two groups of patients with two different interventions, then a trial with randomisation and clinical control would be the best way to determine the intervention of choice in such cases. This part of discussion indicates that the proposer has chosen a clinical problem, the decisive plan of action on which is unknown. The clinical problem here is low back pain and the appropriate physiotherapeutic