Table 2 Description of the control group based on the TIDieR checklist and the TIDieR-Telehealth checklist
Brief name | Face-to-face back school (conventional rehabilitation) |
Why | The back school aims to increase physical activity in everyday life, according to the health action process approach, and to change cognitive patterns towards pain which lead to pain chronicity, based on the fear-avoidance beliefs model [26] |
What (materials) | Several materials are used during the back school, such as a patient information booklet, LCD projector, and presentation sheets. A detailed list of required materials can be found elsewhere [23] |
What (procedures) | The back school consists of seven modules [23]: (1) fundamentals; (2) back health and physical activity; (3) body awareness and spine stabilization; (4) mental factors; (5) posture and movement sequences in everyday life and at work; (6) physical activity in everyday life Part 1; and (7) physical activity in everyday life Part 2 |
Who provided | All outpatient rehabilitation centers are members of the Nanz Medico GmbH & Co. KG group. Each outpatient rehabilitation center provides their own experts from various fields (e.g., physicians, physiotherapists, or psychologists) to implement the back school |
How | All interventions are carried out in groups within the outpatient rehabilitation centers via face-to-face meetings. Outside of the meetings, patients can make use of their materials, such as the patient information booklet, in order to practice or do the exercises |
Where | All meetings take place in the outpatient rehabilitation center |
When and how much | The seven modules are completed within 3 weeks. Each module requires 60 min to complete. In addition to the back school, the patients follow their individual 3-week rehabilitation program in the outpatient rehabilitation center. The treatments in the rehabilitation programs are in accordance with the therapy standards developed by the Federal German Pension Insurance for the rehabilitation of chronic back pain [29] |
Tailoring | No specific tailoring of the intervention to the patients is planned. Nevertheless, during the meetings patients can receive individual feedback from the performing medical expert and apply it accordingly (e.g., change a physical exercise if painful) |
Modifications | As all included outpatient rehabilitation centers are separate institutions, slight variations in performing the standardized back school may occur |
How well | No strategies are implemented to maintain adherence to rehabilitation. However, it will be registered if patients joined each module or not. Therapy adherence will be measured and assessed by the researchers of the University of Lübeck |