EPIC-Neck

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Exercise Prescription Improved through Co-design for people with chronic non-specific Neck pain (EPIC-Neck): A randomised feasibility study with process evaluation

• IRAS ID

  331102

• Contact name

  Jonathan Price

• Contact email

  jonathan.price2@nhs.net

• Sponsor organisation

  Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 9 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Neck pain that has lasted for 3 months or longer (chronic neck pain) results in high levels of pain and limits daily function.

  Guidelines recommend physiotherapy-led exercise for people with chronic neck pain. Even though physiotherapists follow treatment guidelines, research shows current exercise programmes have limited short-term effects, poor engagement long-term, and provide insufficient long-term recovery.

  The EPIC-Neck exercise programme has been co-produced with people who experience neck pain and international neck pain experts to maximise short-term effects and increase long-term engagement and benefits.

  In this small study, we want to see if it is possible, and acceptable, to deliver the EPIC-Neck exercise programme and whether we can conduct a future bigger study testing if the EPIC-Neck programme should be used in clinical practice, instead of the exercise currently prescribed.

  People with chronic neck pain (n=45) from 2 NHS physiotherapy departments will be randomly allocated to one of two different groups.

  1) EPIC-Neck exercise programme
  2) Usual exercise care

  All participants will be asked to complete a face-to-face baseline questionnaire and two follow-up postal questionnaires (3 and 6 months). Questionnaires will help understand the acceptability of the exercise programme and test data collection for future research. Participants in the EPIC-Neck group will also be interviewed at 4 months (n=12-15) for their experiences of the exercise programme and taking part in the study.

  Physiotherapy appointments in both groups will be audio-recorded to check the physiotherapist delivers the EPIC-Neck programme as intended or to describe usual NHS exercise care.

  Physiotherapists delivering the EPIC-Neck programme will complete training before the study starts and will be interviewed (n=8-10) for feedback on the training and the EPIC-Neck programme. Physiotherapists (n=8-15) delivering usual exercise care will be interviewed to further understand how, why, and what exercises are prescribed in usual exercise care in the NHS.

• REC name

  South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  24/SC/0006

• Date of REC Opinion

  22 Feb 2024

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion