• Lifestyle intervention by telephone with ten coaching conversations
• Only cost effective if labour costs are included
• Pain, daily function and quality of life did not differ from the control group

People with chronic low back pain and obesity who follow a healthy lifestyle intervention next to regular treatment, use less healthcare and medication and have significantly lower absenteeism (absence from work). An international research group concludes, that from a social-economic perspective, it seems more cost-effective to mostly conduct lifestyle intervention by telephone. To determine this, they executed a cost-effectiveness analysis using data of a six-month randomised controlled study from 2015 which included 160 Australian low back pain patients with obesity.