Do defined attitudes to health influence recovery from low back pain?

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Do defined attitudes to our health influence recovery from Low Back Pain? A prospective, observational cohort study to determine the health styles of patients referred to physiotherapy with non-specific low back pain

  • IRAS ID

    269949

  • Contact name

    Peter Goodwin

  • Contact email

    P.Goodwin@mmu.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Manchester Metropolitan University

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    N/A, N/A

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 5 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    Do defined attitudes to our health influence recovery from Low Back Pain?

    Low back pain represents a substantial and growing burden worldwide. Historical biomedical approaches to assessment and treatment have failed to arrest this impact on both individuals and society at large. With a growth in the use of psychosocial approaches to care, including cognitive functional therapies and behaviour change, there is greater recognition that significant psychological and social influences prevail yet go largely underutilised.

    Physiotherapy has begun to address some of the psychosocial influences through the use of screening questionnaires. However, these do not fully consider the broader lifestyle influences that motivate people to lead healthy lifestyles. This study therefore wants to use a health-based questionnaire to investigate whether or not the way in which people view their health can influence their recovery from back pain. This approach might then help to deliver better care by matching treatments to individuals within the social framework of their lives.

    Every adult patient who is referred or self refers into physiotherapy services for low back pain, with or without leg pain, will be invited to take part in this research providing basic inclusion/exclusion criteria are met. The study will involve the use of two questionnaires. The STarT Back tool is already used in normal care and will compliment the Health Styles questionnaire, which asks about other lifestyle factors. This will be conducted over four sites in the Wigan and Leigh area in the north west of England, with data collection occurring over a five-month period. Standards of treatment will not be affected by inclusion into this study. NHS records will be accessed on discharge to observe the types and duration of treatments that patients receive, with every effort being made to safeguard all sensitive and personally identifiable data.

  • REC name

    HSC REC B

  • REC reference

    20/NI/0036

  • Date of REC Opinion

    25 Feb 2020

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion