MMICS STUDY (MUSCULOSKELETAL MULTINATIONAL INCEPTION COHORT
STUDY).
Title.
International study of a cohort of patients
with neck and back pain.
Background.
Data from the different studies suggest that
various different factors influence the chronification of
neck and back pain, including biomedical factors (organic,
functional and in some cases perhaps genetic), psychosocial,
occupational and even organizational factors (which would
suggest that the same patient in different settings could
evolve in a potentially different manner, in part because
of the differences between the Health Systems and the existing
social security in different countries).
Given the multitude of factors, the problem is that it is
practically impossible to bring together a large enough sample
to be able to study their hypothetical influence.
Objective.
To put into effect a wide international study
which would allow one:
-
To compare the different Health Care Systems and compare
their effects in the progression of acute, subacute and
chronic disorders.
-
To bring together a sufficiently large sample in order
to contrast the possible effect of (all of the) factors
that current scientific evident demonstrates-or suggests-could
influence the prognosis of illnesses of the back and neck,
including biomedical, psychosocial, occupational and organizational
factors.
Methodology.
The project will be developed in three phases;
the development of a common protocol, carrying out the studies
on a national level and combining the data from the national
studies.
In the first phase, a common protocol will be developed which
defines all the information that must be collected, the manner
of collecting it, and the instruments used to quantify or
classify the value of each variable, so that the data collected
in the different settings are homogeneous enough to be added
into later phases.
In the second phase, the corresponding study in each one
of the participating countries will be developed. In this
phase, the team leading the study in each country will be
able to collect additional information to that included in
the shared protocol agreed upon by all the countries, but
in every case, the protocol information must be collected.
In the third phase, the data from the different countries
will be brought together to make a joint analysis of all the
information gathered.
Participants, along with the Foundation's
Science Department.
Currently, the leaders of the teams that
will coordinate the development of the common protocol in
each country are being defined. The team responsible for its
development in Spain, coordinated by the Foundation, includes
experts in Primary Care and Traumatology, as well as the team
of health economistics of Advanced Research Techniques in
Health Services and the biostatistics team from the Unit of
Clinical Biostatistics at the Hospital Ramón y Cajal,
all of them associated with the Spanish Network of Researchers
in Back Disorders. In this phase of development, all members
of the Network will be invited to participate.
In the international coordination of the multinational program,
the study's national coordinators in each country will participate
as well as a team of advisors that includes the most prolific
writers on back disorders.
Status.
Currently, the international team which will
coordinate the preparation of the protocol (phase 1) and will
promote the constitution of a team that leads the study in
each country (phase 2) is being constituted.
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