Back school or pamphlet education: which is best for industry?

The use of education in the clinical setting to help chronic sufferers cope with their back pain is not a new concept. Back schools and work hardening programs have been running for many years, but education about back pain at the primary care level, in industry specifically, has been slower in developing. Studies that have used back schools in industry have had some success but not as much as might be hoped, often not being very cost-efficient nor producing lasting changes in health behaviours. However, the use of educational pamphlets in the primary care setting have shown success in changing individuals knowledge about back pain and altering number of visits to a physician. Furthermore, when a pamphlet, designed on the basis of current knowledge about the management of non-specific low back pain, was distributed in a manufacturing industry, there were changes in beliefs about back pain which mirrored substantial change in absence behaviour. In conclusion, education through the medium of a pamphlet seems able to change knowledge and behaviours related to back pain and, with sufficiently large reductions in absence from the workplace it would appear to be a cost-efficient method. Further studies are required to confirm the validity and cost-efficiency of pamphlet education for back pain in the manufacturing industry, but also to determine pamphlet utility in other work environments and for other health problems.