Exercise therapy is commonly prescribed by primary care physicians (PCPs) in the management of chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain.

To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a supervised neuromuscular (NM) exercise programme in older people with chronic MSK pain.

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.

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.