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Background |
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Objectives |
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Description |
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Status |
Background.
Postural hygiene consist of learning how to adopt postures and carry out movements or efforts in such a way that the weight put upon the spine is as light as possible. This leads to healthy subjects having less of a risk of suffering from back pain, and improves mobility and autonomy of patients.
The Back School is a health education program designed for the population at large, and preferably for patients with back pain or groups that are prone to suffer from it. Through this school, postural hygiene rules and relevant knowledge on the workings of the spine are transmitted, with a degree of depth which is much greater than that achieved via a prevention campaign.
The Back School is effective in reducing the risk of suffering from back pain, and in improving the recovery of autonomy among those who already suffer from it.
The main objective of the Back School is that patients apply the rules of postural hygiene in their daily activities, and as such, the teaching methodology and available resources for dissemination of knowledge are essential.
In practice, there are problems which reduce the effectiveness that Back Schools may have. They are usually organized by a physician or group of physicians who use the mehtods most accessible to them in their areas and do not coordinate their work with other schools. The contents and teaching systems, therefore, vary from one school to another. Furthermore, they usually fail to systematically evaluate the extent of learning of their pupils or the impact it may have on daily activity, so that the extent of their effectiveness is often unknown and foreseeably inconsistent. Given the above, it is difficult to systematically improve the results from the Schools.
Objective.
To create a network of Back Schools which::
1) Work in a coordinated fashion, and teach homogeneous notions which are subject to constant update.
2) Use the most modern methods to disseminate this knowledge in the most effective manner.
3) Systematically evaluate their results, with the aim of constant improvement.
To this end, the Kovacs Foundation has created the Spanish Back School.
Description.
The Foundation collects and summarizes available information on the assessment of the effectiveness of each of the concepts applied in the schools of the back and on the combinations thereof which yield the best results, thus defining the contents of the Spanish Back School.
The contents are divided into four phases: basic concepts on the structure and workings of the spine, postural hygiene rules, the attitude to follow if there is pain, and mechanism which allow verification of whether the pupils have assimilated the concepts and apply these correctly. Moreover, these contents are constantly updated taking into account the studies which assess the results obtained by the different Back Schools throughout the world. These studies are identified and evaluated in the Back Web.
It is usually made up of three theoretical-practical classes of 45 minutes each, with a maximum number of 10 pupils, although customized courses are designed for specific groups, such as workers or the elederly, where such characteristics may vary. so, for instance, special classes that are tailored for workers are given at the workplace.
Status.
The Kovacs Foundation created the Spanish Back School in 1996. Centers from Alicante, Asturias, Baleares, Barcelona, Granada y Murcia
The expansion criteria which has been followed are:
1) To invite the main medical rehabilitation centers of each region, with the aim of achieving the highest possible number of beneficiaries, and encourage the unity of the medical community and teamwork. In this sense, the Foundation views its Back School as an open forum, to which it contributes its scientific efforts and the organizational capacity it has demonstrated, and welcomes specialized Centers which meet quality and commitment criteria. The Foundation defines and updates the teaching systems based on quality scientific evidence and these are subsequently applied in the Centers.
2) To integrate the School within the Kovacs Back Units, as all the procedures that have been proven scientifically to be effective in prevention or treatment of back conditions are applied therein.
3) To try to reach the widest possible segment of the population, but giving priority to those groups which, like the elderly and workers at risk, are more likely to suffer spine-related problems.
Between September 1999 and the year 2000, the Spanish Back School has given training to a total of 3.124 people. This training has been funded by the pupils themselves, by their companies or by their mutual insurance funds for accidents in the workplace.