The first-ever clinical trial focuses on precision medicine specifically for older adults, a group often overlooked in musculoskeletal research.
Two decades ago, when Gregory Hicks of the University of Delaware began his research career, he was among a small group in the United States focusing on chronic low back pain in individuals over 60.
Fast-forward to today, the research on back pain has ramped up, yet studies of older adults with the problem are still sparse.
“Unfortunately, the societal attitude is that older people don’t warrant the same level of care that younger people do when it comes to musculoskeletal problems,” said Hicks, Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences at UD. “But I don’t believe that for a minute.”
Hicks, a research champion aiming to improve the health of older adults, “has their back” in more ways than one.
“I’ve always loved working with this age group,” he said. “Just as there are health disparities due to race and ethnicity, being older leads to under-treatment of pain. Older people are told there’s really nothing we can do about it, but that’s simply not true.”
With support from the National Institute on Aging, part of the
The findings, recently published in DOI: 10.1016/S2665-9913(23)00267-9
This research was supported by National Institute on Aging grant R01AG041202. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04009837.