Recent research has confirmed that low back pain (LBP) is a significant health problem not only for adults, but also for children and adolescents. Given the enormous social and economic costs associated with LBP, it is critical that attempts be made to decrease the burden of LBP for patients and society.

As health care costs continue to soar, the search for effective treatments with few side effects is critical. The best care will not only aim at treating LBP specifically, but will also encourage an active lifestyle. While spinal manipulation and exercise have shown promise in adult populations, there is a great need for high quality research to investigate their effectiveness in adolescent LBP sufferers.

This study is a two-site randomized clinical trial being conducted by an established team of chiropractic and allopathic professionals at Nothwestern Health Sciences University and Western States Chiropractic College. This is the first full-scale randomized clinical trial assessing chiropractic care for LBP in adolescents. It is innovative in its multi-methods approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative research.

The primary aim of this project is to determine the relative clinical effectiveness of 3 months of chiropractic care and supervised exercise versus supervised exercise in 184 adolescents with sub-acute recurrent, or chronic LBP. Relative effectiveness will be evaluated in the short, intermediate and long term using pain as the primary outcome measure. Secondary aims are to assess group differences in patient self-reported disability, quality of life, perceived improvement, satisfaction, activity levels, lumbar dynamic motion, and trunk muscle endurance. Patients’ and caregivers’ perceptions of treatment using qualitative interviews will also be assessed.