Ali M, Uddin Z, Hossain A. Combined Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation and Physiotherapy on Reducing Pain Among Adult Patients With Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Quasi-Experimental Clinical Trial.
Front Nutr 2021;
8:717473. [PMID:
34676231 PMCID:
PMC8523800 DOI:
10.3389/fnut.2021.717473]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 09/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and vitamin D insufficiency is high. Past research indicating vitamin D supplementation and physiotherapy are useful for the treatment of MSDs. However, to the best of our knowledge, the combined benefits of vitamin D and physiotherapy are not yet evaluated in MSD. We hypothesized that combined intervention of vitamin D supplementation and physiotherapy would be more effective in relieving the pain of MSD compared to only physiotherapy intervention.
Objective: This study aimed to examine whether combined effect of vitamin D supplementation and physiotherapy was better than physiotherapy alone in reducing pain-related outcomes (e.g., pain severity, affective interference, and physical interference) in patients with MSD.
Methods: A quasi-clinical experiment was conducted between May 2020 and April 2021. Vitamin D level in the blood was measured at the start of the study. Patients with vitamin D levels <20 ng/mL were assigned to the combined physiotherapy and vitamin D group. The physiotherapy group consisted of the patients with vitamin D levels more than 20 ng/mL. The Brief Pain Inventory scale was utilized to measure pain at baseline and after 12 weeks of interventions. We used the paired t-tests for unadjusted analysis. Further, a linear regression model was used to identify the combined effect of physiotherapy and vitamin D on reducing pain scores after adjusting potential confounders.
Results: Combined intervention of vitamin D and physiotherapy showed significantly better results than only physiotherapy intervention in the reduction of three pain-related outcomes (p < 0.001). The multivariable analysis indicated that the combination of physiotherapy and vitamin D treatment reduced pain score by 1.126 (slope = −1.126, p = 0.035) compared to physiotherapy alone.
Conclusion: Combined intervention (vitamin D with physiotherapy) had a better pain-relieving effect than physiotherapy alone. To confirm these findings, more research is needed with randomized control trials.
Clinical Trial Registration: [http://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/advancesearchmain.php], identifier [CTRI/2020/04/024845].
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