Worksite Exercise Interventions for Low Back Injury Prevention in Firefighters
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02362243. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
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Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Purpose and Aims: The purpose of this study is to assess the clinical effectiveness of back and core exercise interventions for low back injury prevention in firefighters. Aim 1. Compare the effectiveness of 2 worksite exercise interventions (supervised, web-based) relative to control to reduce lost work days related to low back injury and illness in firefighters. Relevance: Low back injury is one of the most common and disabling disorders in firefighters. Thus, novel interventions are needed to counteract the adverse consequences of this disorder and its impact on firefighter safety. Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial will be conducted in career, full active duty firefighters (n = 345) who will be randomly assigned (by fire station) to 1 of 3 intervention groups - 1) supervised exercise (n = 115), 2) web-based exercise (n = 115), or 3) control (n = 115). Participants in the supervised and web-based exercise groups will perform back and core exercises previously tested in our recent FEMA-funded grant (EMW-2009-FP-00418), twice per week for 12 months while on duty, in addition to their usual physical fitness routine - The supervised group will perform exercise under direct supervision of certified exercise specialists, and the web-based group will utilize a web-based exercise system. The control group will not perform back and core exercises, but will continue their usual physical fitness routine and receive brief education on general exercise and physical activity principles. Outcome measures include low back injury and illness data obtained and cross-checked from various sources, other standard clinical outcome measures for low back pain and disability, and validated physical fitness tests. Anticipated Outcomes: We hypothesize that the supervised and web-based interventions will reduce lost work days related to low back injury and illness by 40% compared with control. Assuming positive results, this study will deliver an evidence-based exercise intervention for low back injury prevention specifically designed for firefighters and assessed in a full-scale randomized controlled trial.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT02362243
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 264 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Feb 29, 2016
- Primary completion
- Apr 29, 2018
- Completion
- Apr 29, 2018
- Last update posted
- Jul 1, 2018
2016 – 2018
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of South Florida | Tampa | Florida | 33612 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02362243, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jul 1, 2018 · Synced Sep 3, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT02362243 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.