Health experience of Turkish speaking patients regarding back pain
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What are the healthcare experiences and health beliefs of Turkish speaking patients with chronic back pain in East London?
IRAS ID
133816
Contact name
Jens Foell
Contact email
Research summary
In this research we will explore the health beliefs and experiences of healthcare amongst patients with chronic back pain (4 months duration or more) within the Turkish-speaking community in Hackney. Turkish-speaking migrants comprise about 10-15% of the population of East London and low back pain is one of the most common complaints with which they attend their general practitioner, but this remains
an under-researched area.Chronic low back pain is common, affecting about 84% of the UK population. Difficult and costly to treat,it is responsible for a significant ill health amongst sufferers. Current strategies for managing back pain include painkillers, physiotherapy, psychological support and behavioural interventions, broadly informed by biopsychosocial understandings of back pain. However, it is well recognised that cultural and other factors affect the illness experience and patients’ expectations of healthcare. One challenge for the NHS is how to meet the needs of a super-diverse multilingual population, in which a wide range of different perspectives, health beliefs and expectations may exist. Our research is a response to this challenge.
Filiz Capar(FC), a migrant Turkish general practitioner who works in Hackney will conduct qualitative research exploring the health beliefs and healthcare experiences of Turkish speaking adults recruited from the back pain service provided by the community physiotherapy department at St Leonard’s. This will include: observing the Turkish-speaking back pain class and making field notes ; approximately 20 indepth interviews (lasting approximately 60-90 minutes) in which patients describe their personal accounts of living with back pain and receiving healthcare; and small focus groups (of 3-6 patients). The research will be conducted in Turkish, with recruitment between September 2013 and April 2014. Interviews will take place either at the physiotherapy centre or in patients’ homes. Interviews and focus groups will be digitally recorded (when possible), transcribed and translated into English for narrative analysis by the research team
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NW/0676
Date of REC Opinion
9 Sep 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion