BACKGROUND: Exercise therapy is commonly prescribed by primary care physicians (PCPs) in the management of chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain. AIM: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a supervised neuromuscular (NM) exercise programme in older people with chronic MSK pain. DESIGN AND SETTING: This was a 12-week, two-arm, randomised controlled trial comparing 6 weeks of supervised NM exercise versus waiting list controls. The authors enrolled 72 participants with chronic MSK pain at seven public primary care clinics. METHOD: Participants were randomly allocated in block sizes of 12 to the NM (n = 36) and control groups (n = 36) in a 1:1 ratio. Data were collected at baseline, 6, and 12 weeks. The primary outcome was the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) pain severity score at 6 weeks post-intervention. Secondary outcomes included the BPI interference score; Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ), Short Form Health Survey (SF-12), 7-item Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), and 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scores; and functional measurements using the Timed-Up- and-Go test and handgrip strength. RESULTS: At 6 weeks, the NM group demonstrated a significantly greater improvement in the BPI pain severity score (between-group difference -1.27; 95% confidence interval (CI) -2.08 to -0.45; p < 0.01), PSEQ (between-group difference 6.5; 95% CI 2.22 to 10.77; p < 0.01), and SF-12 physical scores (between-group difference 3.4; 95% CI 0.05 to 6.75; p < 0.05) compared with the control group. Statistically significant overall trends of improvement were also observed for the BPI interference and PHQ-9 scores. CONCLUSION: NM exercise has the potential to reduce pain and improve self-efficacy and physical function in older people with chronic MSK pain. It can be an option for PCPs in exercise prescriptions.

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