Table 1.
Participant demographics and baseline clinical characteristics
| Mean (SD) or N (%) | Overall N=182 |
Short-term treatment SMT+SRE N=91 |
Long-term management SMT + SRE N=91 |
P value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | mean (SD) | 71.1 (5.3) | 71.5 (5.4) | 70.7 (5.2) | 0.35 | |
| median (range) | 69 (65 – 87) | 70 (65 – 86) | 69 (65 – 87) | |||
| Female | 108 (59%) | 61 (67%) | 47 (52%) | 0.035† | ||
| Duration of neck pain (years) |
mean (SD) | 12.7 (13.1) | 13.6 (12.6) | 11.7 (13.6) | ||
| median (range) | 10 (0.2 – 58) | 10 (.2 – 50) | 7.5 (.2 – 58) | 0.10 | ||
| Duration of back pain (weeks) |
mean (SD) | 17.6 (15.8) | 18.0 (15.0) | 17.2 (16.7) | ||
| median (range) | 14.5 (0.2 – 60) | 15 (0.3 – 60) | 13 (0.2 – 60) | 0.31 | ||
| Ethnicity | ||||||
| Hispanic or Latino | 1 (1%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (1%) | 1 | ||
| Not Hispanic or Latino | 177 (99%) | 88 (100%) | 89 (99%) | |||
| Race | ||||||
| White | 175 (97%) | 90 (99%) | 85 (94%) | 0.12 | ||
| All othersa | 6 (3%) | 1 (1%) | 5 (6%) | |||
| Physical activity levelb | 3.5 (0.8) | 3.5 (0.7) | 3.5 (0.8) | 0.85 | ||
| Neck Disability Index (0–100) | 25.9 (8.5) | 25.2 (7.5) | 26.6 (9.3) | 0.26 | ||
| Neck pain (0–10) | 4.6 (1.7) | 4.5 (1.6) | 4.7 (1.8) | 0.42 | ||
| Back Disability Index (0–100) | 26.2 (9.2) | 25.6 (8.1) | 26.7 (10.2) | 0.39 | ||
| Back pain (0–10) | 5.0 (1.9) | 5.1 (1.8) | 5.0 (2.0) | 0.70 | ||
| Tobacco use (yes) | 14 (8%) | 6 (7%) | 8 (9%) | 0.58 | ||
| Alcohol use (yes) | 102 (56%) | 47 (52%) | 55 (60%) | 0.23 | ||
| Body Mass Index | 28.8 (5.8) | 28.7 (5.8) | 28.9 (5.8) | 0.79 | ||
| Quebec Task Force Classification (neck)c | ||||||
| 1 | 41 (23%) | 20 (22%) | 21 (23%) | 0.56 | ||
| 2 | 101 (55%) | 47 (52%) | 54 (59%) | |||
| 3a | 17 (9%) | 9 (10%) | 8 (9%) | |||
| 3b | 16 (9%) | 11 (12%) | 5 (5%) | |||
| 3c | 7 (4%) | 4 (4%) | 3 (3%) | |||
| Quebec Task Force Classification (back)d | ||||||
| 1 | 118 (65%) | 61 (67%) | 57 (63%) | 0.69 | ||
| 2 | 34 (19%) | 16 (18%) | 18 (20%) | |||
| 3 | 22 (12%) | 9 (10%) | 13 (14%) | |||
| 4 | 8 (4%) | 5 (5%) | 3 (3%) | |||
| Expectations for improvemente | 2.5 (0.8) | 2.4 (0.7) | 2.7 (0.8) | 0.028† | ||
Statistically significant pairwise comparison at ≤0.05
All others includes American Indian or Alaska Native (n=1), Black or African American (n=4), and Other (n=1)
Physical activity level (1=no physical activity, 6=very heavy physical activity)
Quebec Task Force Categories (neck) 1=neck complaint of pain, stiffness, or tenderness only; 2=neck complaint and musculoskeletal sign(s) without radiation; 3=neck complaint and a) pain + radiation to extremity, proximally, b) pain + radiation to extremity, distally, c) pain + radiation to upper limb with neurologic signs
Quebec Task Force Categories (back) 1=pain without radiation; 2=pain + radiation to proximal extremity; 3=pain + radiation to distal extremity; 4=pain + radiation to lower limb with neurologic signs
Expectations for improvement: “Three months from now, how do you expect your back and neck problem to be?” (1=no symptoms/ 100% improvement, 9=as bad as it could be/ 100% worse)