Kaia app has provided patients with educational content, physiotherapy and mindfulness exercises during the entire treatment period, to help reduce their back pain symptoms
Kaia app reduced lower back pain in clinical trial. (Credit: Pexels from Pixabay.)
Results from Rise-uP, a large-scale clinical trial, demonstrated that a mobile app developed by Germany-based digital therapeutics firm Kaia Health has improved symptoms in people with chronic lower back pain.
The cluster-randomised controlled Rise-uP study was designed to evaluate a General Practitioner (GP)-centred back pain treatment using Kaia app compared to standard of care, in 1,245 participants with non-specific low back pain (NLBP).
According to the existing data, NLBP is a pain in lower back not attributable to any known pathology, and affects approximately 30% population in the world, causing physical and psychological burdens.
Kaia app offered educational content, physiotherapy and mindfulness exercises
Subjects in the clinical trial were randomised either to the Rise-uP intervention group (IG), or the control group (CG).
The Rise-uP group was treated as per to the guideline-oriented Rise-uP treatment algorithm, which includes electronic case reports, teleconsultation with pain specialists, and the Kaia app. Control group was given the standard of care, under the national guideline for the treatment of non-specific back pain.
Kaia App has provided patients with educational content, physiotherapy and mindfulness exercises during the entire treatment period, to help reduce their back pain symptoms.
The primary outcome measure was pain rating on the numeric rating scale, and secondary outcomes included psychological measures such as anxiety, depression, and stress, along with functional ability, physical and mental wellbeing.
The study results demonstrated that a superior pain reduction was observed in Rise-uP group than the control group after three months.
Also, the Rise-uP group was superior in secondary outcomes, and high-risk patients who received a teleconsultation experienced decrease in pain intensity than CG patients.
Furthermore, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) demonstrated that the impact of teleconsultation was mediated by an enhanced training activity in the Kaia app.
The study results show the superiority of the advanced digital treatment algorithm in Rise-uP, and underline that digital treatment using Kaia app would improve the quality of treatment for back pain.